In the winter of 1981, I spent the weekend with my grandmother who lived in Oak Lawn, Illinois where I would visit with her and clean her house. We referred to her in Greek as Yaya which is grandmother in Greek. Her name was Lillian or Ligeri which was her Greek name. Her full name was Lillian Vournazou Cotsones originally from Vrontama, Greece. She immigrated to Chicago in 1913 with my Papou Emmanuel Cotsones and by 1981 she was 88 years old having been born in 1893. We would talk and I would take her photos which she would not be very amenable to. She wasn't accustomed to candid photography, but more posed photographs as in the early portraits taken of her in studios with her family when she was a young married and mother. It's hard to picture her at this time and place in the 1920s where she wore a flapper era style clothing in the portrait studio. We see her now with thick Coke bottle post cataract surgery eyeglasses, no support garments, and knee-high pantyhose which probably cut off her circulation. These photos were taken in her apartment on 103rd and Komensky in Oak Lawn, Illinois. My mother and I would visit her frequently having moved to the Northside after the demographics changed in South Shore. During the South Shore years, our family was clustered and in close proximity. We could walk to one another's homes but to visit Yaya it was a matter of taking a Metra train from downtown and get off at 95th Street and take the bus to Pulaski and walk one block to Komensky. The following photo is of my dear cousin Maria Kochilas who is at the wheel of her Ford LTD and Grandma standing alongside her. Maria would pick up Yaya and take her grocery shopping, help her with laundry and other tasks that were needed as she did when Yaya went to the nursing home in her final years. I love that old lady and I'm getting emotional as I'm writing this now because I realize the hardships that she went through when she immigrated to this country where she raised a family through the Great Depression while losing a young child named Chrysanthe (9) and her husband in 1936 at the age of 55 years old. Two of her sons served in WW2 and she continued on with her 4 remaining children where three of them married and produced 7 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. We move on to the Beverly neighborhood at 95th Street where I picked up the Metra train to travel back to the Northside. I stopped to photograph through the window of a barber shop where I am reflected in the mirror. The barbershop had a children's chair with a horsey in front so children could be entertained while the barber tried to give a squirming child a haircut. You can see me also reflected in frame 14. Next is the Givens Castle in the snow which is a little bit out of focus but you get the picture. Now we are back in Lincoln Square with three photos of Frank White and myself in Lincoln where we are holding a Punk Funk 81 poster against a clothing shop window. My camera was at my beck and call and that is how you do street photography. Have it as your sidearm!
© Diane Alexander White PHOTOGRAPHY