The first photo is a restored version of my great-great grandfather Meyer Levinson in front of his Chicago Maxwell Street butcher shop.  The second photo is my great grandparents in front of their Wicker Park shop.

We (my family) believe that Meyer’s photo was taken sometime between 1903 and 1909, before Maxwell Street became a world renown shopping destination in Chicago.  Meyer’s shop was at 326 Maxwell, as the address at the top of the left hand window pane indicates, and was between Sangamon and Morgan Streets. However, as this picture was taken prior to 1909, the address doesn’t coincide with our modern day conception of location in Chicago, wherein Sangamon and Morgan are now at 900 and 1000 West.

In 1909, Chicago’s present day address system of North, South, East and West, commencing at State and Madison Streets, began with the Plan of Chicago AKA the Burnham Plan, named after architect and planner Daniel Burnham. Burnham along with Edward Bennett designed the plan. Consequently, my great-great grandfather’s shop had a completely different address than what it would have under the Burnham Plan. Now, his shop is the location of athletic fields at the University of Illinois, Chicago’s campus.

In the photo at the right are my at great grandparents Minnie and Abe Levinson in front of their 2nd grocery store on the corner of Pierce and Robey (Damen), Wicker Park, Chicago, in the early 1930′s.  To see an enlarged image of the photo click on it.  You can view another shot of my great grandmother in her first store in the same neighborhood here (circa 1925).

Also, through Flickr’s photo badge, you can view an ever-changing collage of these photos and click on the images to view a larger image along with an explanation of what you’re looking at, and what the photo means to me. My Flickr badge appears on the right-hand column of my blog. As always with my website, feel free to comment or critique. Alternatively, all of the photos and their backstories are on this site’s Photos page. Just click on an individual photo to see an enlarged and detailed image.

Click to enlarge Santa Bob's image

In light of the holiday season, I thought that it would be fun to post a photo of Bob Hartung a colleague & generally great guy.

Bob is owner/president of Performance Gains and The CEO School.  During Christmas, Bob transforms into Santa.

What really gets me about this photo, and why I find this photo so interesting, is not just how much Bob looks like the traditional idea of Santa, but his hand gesture/positioning makes the photo really standout in a funny sort of way; like “I’m watching you to see if your naughty or nice.”  Bob and I also serve on the Board of Directors for the Greater O’Hare Association and I’ve become part of his Board of Advisors for the CEO School.  So, knowing Bob in these capacities, this photo is indicative of how he just “gets it.”  Whether it’s Santa, personal & business coaching (which is part of what Performance Gains does) or helping CEOs learn new ways of running their business, this photo, in my mind is indicative of someone who just perfectly understands the role their playing or the task they’re performing.

It’s been more than a year since I’ve posted any photos because I ran out of photos to post. Fortunately, my cousin in Los Angeles recently discovered a new photo, a restored version of my oldest photo (that of my great-great grandfather Meyer Levinson in front of his Chicago Maxwell St. butcher shop circa 1903-09), and some more background on another photo. These photos date back to the early 1900s in Chicago.

Through Flickr’s photo badge, you can view an ever-changing collage of these photos and click on the images to view a larger image along with an explanation of what you’re looking at, and what the photo means to me. My Flickr badge appears on the right-hand column of my blog. As always with my website, feel free to comment or critique. Alternatively, all of the photos and their backstories are on this site’s Photos page. Just click on an individual photo to see an enlarged and detailed image.

Here’s my newest photo:

Young & Goldstein Frocks, Chicago, 1944, Maury Young, Charles Krugel, etc.

If you click on the image, you’ll see the full-sized photo. This is a photo of my great-uncle Maury Young (far left), 2 unidentified men, and my grandfather Charles Krugel (far right), who’s obviously the person that I was named after, working at Chicago’s Young & Goldstein Frocks in 1944. It’s kind of a cool photo with the lighting, shadows, clothing and machinery.  Unfortunately, I know little else about the company or workers.

I’ll post the restored photo referred to above soon.

The concept of this photo series is that my photos are the opposite of the generic pictures posted in most business websites and pamphlets. More specifically, instead of photos of models posing and pretending to be working, my photos are of real people, doing real work and they have real a connection to me.

These photos date back to the early 1900s in Chicago, and are images of my relatives at their places of work. For example, my earliest photo dates back to circa 1903-09 and is a picture of my great-great grandfather in front of his butcher shop on Maxwell Street on Chicago’s near west side. Other photos include my dad and me at work.

Now, through Flickr’s photo badge, you can view an ever-changing collage of these photos and click on the images to view a larger image along with an explanation of what you’re looking at, and what the photo means to me.

My Flickr badge appears on the right-hand column of my blog. As always with my website, feel free to comment or critique.

The 1st photo was taken at my 2/22/06 employment law seminar at Evanston/Northwestern’s Small Business Development Center. Notice how intently everyone is paying attention. During the entire 2 hour seminar, everyone was hanging onto each word. Actually, I did notice one indivdidual began to drift off a little during the 2nd hour. Hope he caught up on some needed sleep.

The 2nd photo is me pointing to something during a break at some February 2006 depositions. It kind of looks like I’m doing something really really important. At least I hope my client thinks so.

To view larger images of the photos, just click on them.