Make Your Move
Chicago, Illinois
2011

These serious chess players were set up in a doorway on Michigan Avenue and were oblivious to all those passing by (including me taking their photo). I think it is a semi-permanent fixture of the area, at least it was there every day that we were. I’m not sure if it was the same two guys every time or if there was a rotating cast of players.

In Case of Fire
Chicago, Illinois
2011

The view down an alley somewhere in the Loop.

The Replacements
Chicago, Illinois
2011

An interesting pattern created by some windows replaced with bricks which were in a few cases replaced with new windows.

Anonymity
Chicago, Illinois
2011

Some of the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of windows in a random block in the Chicago Loop. One assumes that there is a lot of life going on behind them, although there is no indication of that except for the one window with the curtain drawn back, as if someone was looking out at me as I took the photo.

Rivets
Chicago, Illinois
2011

An interesting rivet pattern on one of the many bridges across the Chicago River. I find these old steel bridges fascinating in sort of a giant Erector Set sort of way and the textures and tones they produce in a black and white image are hard to resist.

Bang the Drum
Chicago, Illinois
2011

Drumming on plastic buckets seems all the rage these days. These guys were the best of the several groups I saw in Chicago. Maybe it’s popular because the monetary entry point for both the equipment and wardrobe is considerably lower than that for folks like yesterday’s saxaphone player.

Dress Code
Chicago, Illinois
2011

There are a lot of street musicians in downtown Chicago. I thought too late to make a project out of photographing them but I did get a couple of good shots. I was impressed by this guy’s attire. He’s better dressed for performing on Michigan Avenue than many popular musicians are when they go on stage these days. Not that I care–jeans and a t-shirt are my preferred dress most of the time anyway and, growing up in the sixties and seventies, my hair was never what could be called well-coiffed. But, I do sometime wonder when watching music videos whether or not the performers spent a lot of time agonizing over choosing just the right ragged t-shirt and rumpled pants and primping in front of a mirror in order to get that just-rolled-out-of-bed look, or if they had in fact just rolled out of bed and didn’t even look in the mirror on the way to the stage. Whatever works.

Pritzker Abstract #3
Chicago, Illinois
2011

One last view of the Pritzker Pavilion. I like each of the three Pritzker images individually but have been thinking they might be even more powerful together. I might have to try printing them and mounting them as a triptych.

Pritzker Abstract #2
Chicago, Illinois
2011

I think the appeal of Gehry’s buildings is that they make cold, angular, scaly metal forms actually look sensual. In fact, photos of Gehry’s work have much the same feel as that other perennially photographed sensual subject (no not women), sand dunes. This comparison came to mind when I was viewing fellow photographer Cole Thompson’s portofolio The Dunes of Nude around the same time I was working on my Pritzger images.

Pritzker Abstract #1
Chicago, Illinois
2011

If you’re a photographer and a fan of dramatic architectural abstracts, then any Frank Gehry designed structure is heaven–a well trampled heaven to be sure (covered by many, many, photographers), but quite irresistible nonetheless. This is from the Jay Pritzger Pavilion, a bandshell in Millennium Park.