Evan Feuerstein met Chic in the 1960’s, while they were both working at Slide O’Chrome, a top New York professional photographic lab. Chic’s full name was Charles M. Chic. A few years earlier he’d been drafted into the US Army, which he did not want to serve, especially in the heat of the deep South where they sent him for basic training. Chic was a peaceful man with a horror of war; he also wanted to stay alive. There were things he intended to accomplish.
So, Chic used stereotypes of black people to his advantage. He lost his gun. He didn’t lose it just once or twice; he lost it as often as he possibly could. His commanders would bark at him: “Where’s your gun, Private?” Chic would look around and say “Gun? What gun?” Sometimes for good measure he asked, “What is…gun?”
After a while, they transferred Chic to kitchen duty, where he lost utensils and pretended not to know that heating the oven meant turning it on. He cut himself while chopping potatoes and pretended the staff’s instructions went in one ear and out the other. Just a few weeks into his army service, Chic received an honorable discharge. Then he was free to head back to New York for the career in professional photography he had planned for himself.
In the photographic labs, he earned the opposite reputation: He could print pictures faster and better than anyone and was also handy at fixing equipment. He did his work in half the time it was meant to take and would then step out for a while to run his own business, telling Evan Feuerstein to cover for him. Since opening the darkroom door could ruin any film or paper that was exposed, the manager couldn’t check up on them too often.
Chic had a van with Chic Color Studios painted on the outside and a portable darkroom inside. In the evenings, he’d park outside the jazz clubs of Manhattan and photograph people inside enjoying themselves. Then he’d rush back to his van, develop the film and print the pictures, and sell the prints to the customers before they left their tables. Eventually Chic had more work than he could do alone, so he invited Evan to work for him in the evenings. Chic would go into the clubs to take pictures while Evan stayed inside the van, developing film and printing pictures as fast as he could. He learned a lot of things from Chic, not only about photography.
Copyright © Leora Freedman 2023
***If you have something to say, or a story to share, our comments page is the place to leave it!
