Dear Michael Wolf, I am thrilled with your photography of the fine city I call home. Thank you for l

This blog is a collection of letters and surveys. The letters new york state travel are written to family and friends, authors and politicians, new york state travel those living and those long dead. Others, anyone really, may answer or comment.
Dear Michael Wolf, I am thrilled new york state travel with your photography of the fine city I call home. Thank you for lending your expertise to your art, and sharing it with the city at the Museum of Contemporary Photography . A curious thing occurred to me, though, as I looked new york state travel at your work. Several years ago, while still living in the 'burbs, I longed for the city because of the fact that it's much harder to be isolated in the midst of a huge mass of people. new york state travel Community--or at least a forced proximity to the lives of other people--seemed a foregone conclusion to the premise of city living, new york state travel and that appealed to me. But your work shows that this is not the case; it is still possible, albeit more difficult, to find isolation in the midst of city living. Indeed, Thoreau put it well: "City life is millions of people being lonesome together." Your thousand-word-photo puts it more succinctly though, juxtaposing the density of humanity with its isolation. I cannot understand new york state travel the flatness you use in so much of your urban photography. It seems to be at odds with the personality, meaning, action, emotion, and purpose that are constantly peppering your photographs. Perhaps it is because you are trying to highlight the repetition of the city--the new york state travel similarity between each of us that emerges when we're standing next to each other. But that repetition and flatness new york state travel doesn't hold true in my mind. Take, for instance, the photo I refer to as 'The Girl and the Foot.' There is emotion here--the girl is seeking something, and the man she cannot see seems to be hard at work behind the curtains. And it's not as though you are forced to use this flat perspective in your photography. Others have photographed the city without it, and have done so to great effect. So you certainly could have described Chicago without this flatness. Indeed, it is this emotion-on-display that seems to be the highlight of your work. Sometimes when we are in our homes we assume a barrier between new york state travel us and the rest of the world, ignoring new york state travel our own exhibitionism. Yet our lives are out there for anyone to see, if only they would look. Is that the true isolation new york state travel then, that we are offering ourselves, but nobody else is looking? Thank you for creating this work that highlights the contradictions between our co-location and human isolation; our emotional pleas for attention new york state travel and our unwillingness to offer sympathy; the flatness and fullness of city life. I hope that your exploration of other American cities will help you further explore and expose the personal lives we have each made apparent new york state travel in Chicago, our Transparent City . TheUkieVillain
Love this! The Michael Wolf stuff is wonderful. Chicago is a great city to live in and to photograph. The video reminds me of the company I used to work for--iPIX--that did images with 180 degree fisheye lens. Click here to see a virtual iPIX tour of the Field museum. UkieVillain, you have an "in" with another Chicago photographer, don't you? We'd love to see some of her images here also!!!!
new york state travel My husbands cousins live in Chicago. They live down in one of the high rises near Navy Pier. It is a beautiful area of town with gorgeous views...well at least until the high rise next door got finished. I don't mean to say that the neighboring new york state travel high rise blocked their beautiful views of the city and lake. It didn't. What I mean to say is that the windowed high rise next door had apparently put large windows in the bathrooms...windows that in no way were tinted enough to block what was going on inside. At night, when people lit up their homes and bathrooms, my husband's cousin's family as well as everyone in their building could see the doings next door. The people next door may have felt isolated, but they were closer new york state travel to their neighbors then they new. Someone finally new york state travel told the neighboring building and all kinds of curtains, blinds and tinting went up. But not before the cousins got some good dinner time stories to tell. :) Chicago is a great town!