The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Restaurant, Chicago

c. 1965

Mikki Ferrill

(American, b. 1937)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 13.7 x 24 cm (5 3/8 x 9 7/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2022.20
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

In the 1960s and 1970s, Mikki Ferrill was part of a network of Black photojournalists who worked on Chicago’s South Side.

Description

Ferrill photographed on assignment for Ebony, Downbeat, and other publications but also produced personal work: in-depth explorations of South Side communities. In this exchange between a waitress and patron at a busy diner, the woman’s gaze and the taut relationship between their bodies describes a complex, tension-filled encounter, one all the more potent because it has been captured through a woman’s eye.
  • 2021
    (Keith de Lellis Gallery, New York, NY), sold to Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York, NY
    ?-2022
    (Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc., New York, NY), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art
    March 7, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • {{cite web|title=Restaurant, Chicago|url=false|author=Mikki Ferrill|year=c. 1965|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.20