40 Honest Portraits Of Chicagoans Captured By A Social Studies Teacher With A Smartphone

Fascinated by the works of legendary photographers like Gordon Parks and William Eggleston, Bolos has trained his phone’s camera to catch candid moments most of us overlook. Inspired after seeing the famous documentary on Vivian Maier and attending a lecture by street photographer Brian Sokolowski, he’s been documenting these fleeting encounters ever since.

“My subjects are usually blind to my stealthy process,” Bolos shared — and that’s exactly what allows him to catch what Paul Strand once described as a true ‘quality of being.’ But in a world increasingly surveilled, even his most unsuspecting subjects occasionally catch his gaze, creating brief sparks of recognition.

Spiro also shared with us more about one of his most personal photo series, Asymptomatic/Presymptomatic Project (color images): “As many others were doing during those endless days and months, I had forced myself to go on long walks outside, even during the coldest weather. As a myopic and masked pedestrian trapped inside the global pandemic, I had been perpetually frustrated (and perhaps endangered) by the fogging of my eyeglasses, despite attempting every home remedy known to clear the condensation. So I decided to embrace the hazy view the impediment suggested: I began shooting my photos directly through my ever-present spectacles, revealing a hidden world that ached with isolation and often augured murky outcomes.”

The photographer continued, giving us a glimpse into the creative process behind the project: “Once these initial murky images were created, I then layered them atop black-and-white snaps from my street photography practice of the previous year. Those original photos were taken on my commute to and from work, where ridership had decreased by 90%. The rest were from my routine solo outings. The double-exposure effect revealed the invisible shroud we now understand had been with us far longer than we initially believed was possible.”

If you’re interested in exploring more of Spiro’s work and discovering all of his projects, you can visit the photographer’s Instagram.