In Photos: Chicago Nightclubs in the 1970s

He began photographing the nightlife of Chicago’s South Side, a predominantly black neighbourhood where club-goers would go to dance to blues, R&B, and later funk and disco

The series won Abramson a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1978 – and launched his career as a photojournalist

This image, like others in the series, was taken at Perv’s House, described by Abramson as ‘the Cadillac of the clubs I visited – like a Playboy Club for the South Side’