D. Shigley, a Chicago photograoher who loved his work, his city, his extended family, and the blues, died in his home December 26 of a heart attack at age 46.
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A solidly built, tersely articulate man with a quick, devilish grin and small, sharp eyes, D. seemed to know everyone involved in Chicago’s living workaday culture and the city itself from Homewood to 43rd Street, from Austin to the North Shore. He was perhaps most widely recognized for photos in the Reader, the Illinois Entertainer, Rolling Stone, Down Beat, Living Blues, and many other publications; some of his best known photographs show Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with Muddy Waters and Lefty Dizz, and Blues Brothers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd partying with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. D. recently published a poster-sized print of Muddy backed by the Stones titled Fathers and Sons. But Shigley was neither an acolyte nor a historian; he saw the blues as a direct, emotional expression of vivid, unpretentious people, and he enjoyed depicting the little-publisized musicians of Maxwell Street and south- or north- or west-side blues clubs as much as he did internationally acclaimed entertainers.
Clarity and self-assurance were among D.’s qualities. Both can be seen in his work, which was prodigious. He was a short but broad-shouldered man with a can-do attitude who believed action and pictures were worth more than words. Looks like he was right.
