David Lenz focuses his attention on people marginalized from mainstream society—the poor, those with disabilities—in an effort to make the unseen seen; his easel becomes a subtle bully pulpit to remind us of the grave inequities and injustices that too often go unnoticed.

Behind the young girl posing for her portrait on the roof of a building on Milwaukee’s east side, a new day is dawning. It is, as the title makes clear, Sunrise. Stretching behind the girl, more affluent neighborhoods unfold until they reach expensive homes overlooking Lake Michigan. Lenz captures youth, hope, and the dawn of a new day, but makes clear as well that only a few streets separate affluence and poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods, opportunity and high expectations against predictability and low expectations.