While I didn't make any effort to match these, they're almost the same photo.
My Chicago collection is coming to a close soon. It's mostly accidental, but the photo sequence here has been largely chronological, with these images being taken around sunset and dusk. There's just a bit more to come, with a couple of night shots as well.
Something that struck me about Chicago is the huge number of really big parking garages. Since nobody lives downtown, everyone has to put their cars somewhere.
Under 20 minutes costs $6. 21-40 minutes jumps to $16. An hour is $20, and an hour and twenty minutes costs $25. More than 81 minutes will cost $32, with an extra $2 if it goes longer than twelve hours.
Seems a little expensive to me.
Chicago's "L" is fascinating, like much of the city; I can't imagine it being built today. The scale of the infrastructure makes Toronto look very small.
For a change of pace this week, I took my D700 and 105VR for a walk. Small cameras are nice, but so are big ones.
But I suspect that this one camera and lens weighs more than my entire GH1 kit.
A trio of loosely-related images from Chicago. I still have more to come, but if I post them one at a time, I'll wander off and do something else before all of my favourites make it on.
A second image from the lowest level of Wacker Drive. This level is used to access the loading docks of the buildings that appear to begin three floors up.
This is also my 750th post on this little hobby photo blog.
One of the amazing things about Chicago is that parts of it are built in layers of Victorian ironwork. Wacker is a street that's triple-decked in some places, and this is off to the side of its lowest level. A cheap novel I once read had gun-runners doing a deal in almost this exact spot. I can't say that it was a destination that I had in mind, but now I wish I had explored a little more.
Many of my favourite photos from Chicago aren't particularly photos of Chicago.
Detail, Jackson Pollock, Greyed Rainbow; Art Institute of Chicago
Detail, Jasper Johns, Corpse and Mirror II; Art Institute of Chicago
Installation, Mark Rothko, Untitled (Purple, White, and Red), 1953, Art Institute of Chicago
Installation, On Kawara, Oct. 31, 1978, Today Series, "Tuesday", Art Institute of Chicago
Installation, Brice Marden, Rodeo, Art Institute of Chicago
A selection of some of my favourite works from ARTIC's Modern wing. Quite reasonably - but unlike the AGO and National Gallery in Ottawa - they allow their supportive public to photograph the works in their permanent collection.
Jackson Pollock, of course, is hugely famous; Jasper Johns, frequently portrayed as Pollock's counterpoint, is much less so. The Mark Rothko painting on display - no longer listed as such, presumably joining the gallery's others in storage - was one of the big reasons why I picked Chicago for a field trip. On Kanawa's date series wasn't something I knew of ahead of time, although the exquisitely precise but ultimately meaningless freehand painting is exactly the sort of thing that I like. And finally, the boldness and solidity of Brice Marden's 'Rodeo' really appealed to me; it almost felt like a cross between Rothko and Newman, which is a good thing.
One of my very last photos from the trip home from Chicago, this was in the London bus terminal. It barely qualifies for my 'weekly' photo, but I didn't want to break up the theme.
I'd left home seventeen hours earlier, and was moving for most of it. I crossed the border the night before, and only slept for five hours while folded into a greyhound bus.
Outside the terminal in a city that I haven't seen in eighteen years, I guess which direction is east, and start to walk. It's five thirty in the morning.
Thirty seconds later, this is what I see.
Chicago is my kind of town.
Karena Massengill is an accomplished artist who - mostly - works in steel. Taking the time to explore her "Muted Characters" set was quite an experience for me, since it let me see and play with something that I hadn't seen in almost twenty-four years. The artist is my stepmother, and in a way I grew up with these works. I actually didn't recognize what I was seeing until I adjusted my sense of scale by sitting down on the ground with them.
The smallest of these sculptures, with its freestanding 'wings' for support, was always my favourite.
Detail of "Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
Detail of "Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
"Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
"Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
"Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
I always had a certain bond with the littlest one - but it looked much bigger the last time I saw it.
Detail of "Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
A small part of a larger project.
Detail of "Muted Characters" by Karena Massengill, as installed at the Latcham Gallery, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario.
