Vivian Maier

I dabble in street photography. I am a recent dabbler so I do not know very many of the masters of the genre. However, the relatively recent discovery of Chicago-area nanny Vivian Maier's work sort of opened the door to street photography for me. Maier was a prolific shooter, and often had the kids she took care of in tow. Her work is brilliant.

Vivid Vivian Maier

Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra created this beautiful, colorful tribute to Maier. Her work was mostly shot on black and white film so I also made a monochrome version.

Maier in monochrome

Click images to view on black.

Foggy Day Urbex

I was out exploring and shooting a couple weeks ago when Chicago was blanketed in fog. The streets of downtown were great. I was attracted to the bluish-gray hue. I enhanced the blue in the following two images in post to emphasize the mood I felt while shooting. A friend remarked that the space in between the buildings in the middle of the frame looks itself like an upside down skyscraper. It does!

Melancholy in the Loop

The yellow of the street lighting was a nice contrast to the blue. I am not a patient photographer. I should have waited for a train to arrive at my station for additional foreground interest. I have another shot like this I took last year where there I did wait for a train, so I guess I simply felt it wasn't needed.

RUMP Tower ;P

Then I switched to monochrome for a more gritty urban mood in the following two images. I love how the fog in the air made the lights glow. The first image was shot in my neighborhood. There is a viaduct on every block for quite a long stretch. I love them. Some of them still have exposed cobblestone. A railway runs along the top on the left side of the frame.

The lighted path

The lighted dots in the upper half of the frame are lights from a distant highrise. They look a bit like stars.

Urban geometry of alleyways

Click images to view on black.