Growing up in Chicago during the 1980’s has informed Portlock’s interest in the dialogue between place and the formation of identity in urban space. For his ongoing project Ghost City, Portlock uses the conventions of pastoral landscape painting and the tools for developing computer games to create large format prints based on the abandoned buildings within a five-mile radius of his house.??

Portlock received an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Chicago and an MFA in Electronic Visualization from the University of Illinois. Images from the Ghost City series have been exhibited at Moore College of Art (Philadelphia), Abrons Art Center (New York City) and Arlington Art Center (Arlington VA) among others. Ghost City #13, from the series, is featured on the cover of a recent issue of Photography Quarterly (#98). Other recent projects have been screened or exhibited at the This is Not a Gateway Festival (London, UK), International Guerrilla Video Festival (Dublin, Ireland) and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Portlock has work in the permanent collection at Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) and has exhibited in France, the UK, Poland, Argentina, and Japan.