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Biography       Alamo & Costello (aka Michael "Chester" Costello, b. 1967) began his career as a photo-based artist in 1987 utilizing photography coupled with audience interaction in Indianapolis, Indiana. One of his early efforts, "Slurs, Blurs, Recent Renderings and Other Devices", was produced for the 431 Gallery in Indianapolis. This initial collaborative piece was produced with artist, Jesse Bercowetz, and the general public. Over the course of 2 weeks the artists and casual passersby utilized photography, painting, and other two-dimensional artforms to produce a large autoschediastic photo-painting measuring 9 by 108 feet.       In 1991, Costello co-founded  Armpit: A Roving Street Gallery in Indianapolis with Bercowetz and Michael Plaza. This collective relocated in 1993 to Chicago, Illinois. Between 1991 and 1997,  Armpit produced a number of impromptu performance works that utilized an ecclectic assortment of nontraditional art mediums (e.g. Urban Totems via dumpster-diving); these often random actions were presented throughout the Midwest in the United States. Frequently, these enterprises addressed current regional events through the creation of a street-level dialogue in areas outside the traditional gallery and museum environment.       Costello continued this working format in his use of photography and other media to stimulate public discourse in efforts produced in Chicago for the Museum of Contemporary Photography ( Heroic Efforts, 1997) and the Hyde Park Art Center ( The Men Who Sold the World, 2000). In each of these projects he offered either money or selected artworks produced specifically for these exhibitions to the audience - free of charge - as a commentary on the status of art as commercial product.       In 1998, Costello received a CAAP Grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs of the City of Chicago to produce "Searching for Geomantrick". This project consisted of the creation of 60 photo-transparency light boxes that were distributed to 20 Chicago parks for casual passersby to find, keep and respond to via a self-addressed envelope or a visit to the project's internet website.   "Searching for Geomantrick" was Costello's initial attempt to address issues of communication, trust and futility through the creation of a photo-based social experiment.       In 1999, Costello began the  "Appleseed International" project with the support of another CAAP Grant from the City of Chicago. This project was developed to broaden the scope of  "Searching for Geomantrick" to include international venues. This social-based venture consisted of producing 280 natural light boxes (Appleseeds) and traveling to 40 cities (20 in the U.S. and 20 abroad) to distribute the artworks in city parks. As in Geomantrick, an introduction and invitation to participate in the project was included, but written in the primary language of each country visited. This information was translated from English into Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Italian, Russian, and Swedish. In addition to locations in the United States, Appleseed, included site visits to Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, and Switzerland. The final drop-offs were completed in August 2004. At this time, 72  Appleseed finders have responded to the photo-object deposits with cards, letters, e-mail messages, and artworks of their own.       In 2005 Costello began " New Street Agenda" as a continuation of his previous works "Searching for Geomantrick" and "Appleseed International". Using information encountered in the public domain, " New Street Agenda" addresses the contradictory and deceptive approaches utilized in commercial advertising, political campaigning, social commentary, and other formats of literal and image-based description. In the spring of 2007, Costello placed the initial artworks in public places for retrieval in Rome, (IT); Salzburg, (AT); and Munich, (DE). In the autumn, artworks were placed in the Liverpool (UK) and Manchester (UK) and Indianapolis, IN (US). In the spring of 2008, art drops were placed in New York, NY (US). With this project, Costello is currently developing a project book entitled "The Good Ambassador's Guide to Travel Projects" that will look at these related projects and the material accumulated since 1999.       In addition to the aforementioned experimental efforts, Alamo & Costello has maintained a strong relationship with what is frequently defined as "straight approaches" to image making. A handful of the ongoing projects currently being pursued consist of (7 Minutes SW of the Loop) a document on Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood southwest of the Loop, (University) a sociological look at the makeup of the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, and (Street Notes) a series of images that contrasts the aggressive and raw street graphics that appear in the public domain from various countries.       In November 2008, Costello's initial book, " Grandpa Danny" was released by Dark Lark Press, Chicago, Illinois. In the afterword, Robert Kotchen writes" This is the real intimacy of these photographs - those marks of self-consciousness that would seem to indicate a barrier to intimacy; intimate because those marks of hesitancy, questioning, and uncertainty are real, and Danny allows them. This is the gift Danny has given Chester - to allow Chester to keep photographing when he doesn't know exactly what Chester is looking for, to be vulnerable in the photographic process, to contribute to that process in which he becomes vulnerable." This book consists of photographs made since 1987 by Costello contrasted with objects that he located in private places in his grandfather's home.       In the Spring of 2010, Costello's second book, "The Globe", will be released. This project will look at a football (soccer) pub located in Chicago and the lives of the supporters, staff, and other patrons.       Alamo & Costello completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts from John Herron School of Art (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1991, and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago in 1998. From 1995 to 2001, he was an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Photography at Columbia College Chicago. In 1999, he began his tenure at the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois, as the Visual Arts Coordinator in the Department of Fine Arts. Since 2001, Costello has taught in the Department of Art and Design.