Michael Abramson

Abramson was born in Jersey City and graduated from Columbia University High School in nearby Maplewood. He received his bachelor's degree from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, but his life changed when he was accepted to the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where he received his master's degree in 1977.

Abramson decided to stay in Chicago, where he taught photography as a part-time instructor for two years after graduation.

"The Black Nightclubs of Chicago's South Side" was a reflection and analysis of photographs he took of regulars and performers at several nightclubs on Chicago's south side in the mid-1970s.

Throughout his long career, he increasingly received commissions from national news outlets such as Time , Forbes , Newsweek , Business Week , Fortune and Bloomberg . Notable subjects included Steven Spielberg , Michael Jordan , Ron Howard , Oprah Winfrey, Donald Rumsfeld, Louis Farrakhan., Bill Clinton and Steve Jobs. Today , his commercial work is handled by Getty Images .

Abramson had two short marriages, both ended in divorce within two years.

In 1999, he began dating DePaul Professor Midge Wilson, and the two continued their relationship until Abramson's death from cancer on March 21, 2011.

Abramson stipulated in his will that Wilson would keep his vintage photographs and insure his legacy.

Since 2011, Abramson's images from the south side have been exhibited in many galleries and museums, including the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Fotographie Forum in Frankfurt, Germany, Benhadj-Gilali Gallery in Berlin, MMX Gallery. In London , Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Candela Unbound! Gallery in Richmond, Virginia and at Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago.