The Ogden Avenue Eyes

I think I’ve mentioned elsewhere about my attempts to capture the perfect forms of certain aspects of the City. Winter is one of these aspects and it at least has a certain definitive quality to it – at least we can agree on what winter is. But another aspect which I try to capture is – for lack of a better definition – Chicagoness; that essence which defines this City. Now, ideally, this idea underpins every shot that I take but there are times where I want to try and capture that sense directly. Let’s leave aside trying to define the concept of Chicagoness for now however. As for this photo, it was not a deliberately planned shot. A few summers ago I was back in the area when I learned that yet another piece of Chicago history was falling by the wayside. In this case, the sucide ramps on the Kennedy were being decommissioned and I set out to try and shoot them before they were gone (how does one try to capture the essence of a highway on ramp? A post for another day). I was taking the Green Line on this particular evening and decided to dismount at Ashland Ave and walk the rest of the way in. I actually spent quite a bit of time shooting from the Ashland Ave. platforms however (it was a great sunset) and was in danger of losing all light by the time I made it to the Kennedy (which turned out to be further away than I had thought) so I was having to walk fast. My problems were only compounded by the fact that, as great as the sunset had been, the blue hour was just good. With this amazing light and the strong foreground elements of the el, going was slow. Presently I made my way to Ogden Avenue and was greeted with the scene below. Now, I’ve been riding the Green line for years – decades actually – and this scene was already pretty well known to me. But especially on this warm summer evening, with the blue-grey skies and the yellow-orange glow of the lamps and the only sound the buzzing of the sodium vapor streetlights and above all the remnants of West Side Industry, framed by the backbone of the el, it was irresistible to shoot. I set up the tripod quickly to get my brackets before any cars came into the scene and ruined the shot, but the City seemed to be on my side this evening. Nothing came to disturb me and it was so quiet, I could hear the circuits or switches or whatever thumping and clicking as the walk-don’t walk signs flipped back and forth. I lingered for a few minutes to enjoy the silence and the solitude and then continued to the ramps. I did finally make it there and got my shots. Completely blew the light so I got them in the dark.