The Underside by Chipka
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Chicago’s history has always exited on two levels: there’s the visible history of the city—the politically-correct news spin that Chicago history often receives. The city’s massive conflagration, recognized as “that Fire” is blamed on a cow. That’s the official history, and it’s far from the truth. According to more contemporary studies, and an awareness that The Great Chicago Fire was but one of many fires in the region, it is now theorized (with a bit of conclusive evidence) that the city-burning fire was caused by a type of exploding meteorite called a bolide. A similar sort of astronomical body might also be responsible or the famous Tunguska Event as well. As Chicago’s very history exists on two levels, it’s no surprise that much of the city is also multi-level in nature. Unlike the hidden regions of other cities, however, Chicago's hidden nature serves purely cosmetic reasons. Trucks are not as welcome on Michigan Avenue as one would think, and so the linear, underground stretches of city real estate are reserved for them: especially along Michigan Avenue.
The underside of Michigan Avenue is not a very extensive (or clean) region: it's friendly to trucks, rats, movers, and pedestrians stealing rain-free shortcuts from one store to another. It's not a tourist destination, and it's not quite as pretty as the store displays up above might happen to be. It is an echo of the famous and unused tunnels meandering beneath the city like the handiwork of giant, improbable ants. This area beneath Michigan Avenue is reserved for trucks making deliveries, as the above-street alleys and Michigan Avenue proper are always, always congested.
I took this photograph fairly recently: this is one of the areas of the city I never tire of seeing. There isn’t much to actually see: nothing of consequence, at any rate…but I liked the light and the colors that graced my camera lens, and this is the result of my pressing the all-important shutter release button. I liked the lines. I liked the pretty colors. I liked the dead bike, mostly hidden behind all of the lines dominating this image.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (24)
I remember that day, I think it was when Bill and Tara were here. I've always been fascinated by the service streets under the official streets downtown, and thought it a clever idea that we have them. This picture is great! I particularly like the way the two dominate colors merge and bounce off each other, and the mysterious tangle of all those bars. Like this a lot.
I think we were there when we lived in McHenry, IL and visiting Chicage. It almost looks like the area around the Billy Goat Bar. Very nicely done.
What a wonderful smorgasborg of contrasting warm red, yellows, oranges, and cool blues! And all those vertices just make it even better.
There is always the otherside. No doubt a night image...the HPS lighting works well with the different levels, well seen!
This is a truely cool capture. the lines from the fences, create a focus for the mind and eyes
wonderful photo!!
love the colors
Wonderful graphic photo with great colors.:)
again a wonderful angle...love the colours and the silence in this image
A terrific image, which would make a great Lino-print.
Great find and capture my friend. God Bless.
Yes, the underbelly of the beast, where the red-light district surrounds and tries to extinguish the blue light parts of the town! Love the photo!
AW! What a beautiful capture with the colors and the shapes of the staircase and the composition and clarity is perfect in my opinion. A really masterpiece. It is a really clever idea to put the less attractive cityscape of the city down under :)
Yes, the colours, the light, the lines...a beautiful scene and fantastic capture, Chip!
Cool shot~!
Wonderful light, shadows and color!!
wonderful colors and shot
I LOVE THESE DARK URBAN SHOTS
Next time we come back there this HAS to be on the agenda! I always forget (until I'm wandering around in Google Street View and suddenly find myself somewhere I never expected to be) that there are streets under your streets. It's a totally weird concept to me. What a cool shot! I love the colors and lines, and the reminder of Chicago's underground bits.
an exquisite image, Chip, and a wonderful history, with your usual ruminations and inner thoughts. Yeah, the underground was built with real foresight, to take the crush of traffic above and at least put the commercial stuff underneath. Something New York should've done, although by now there's a crush up top anyway. I wrote a tale about it, years back, in semi-Calvino fashion, based on my childhood meanderings of looking down one of the openings to the underground and seeing three levels, not two (probably because I was looking through an overpass of some kind), and imagining the levels going down & down & down, revealing whole civilizations down there, looking up for the first time in eons to this strange city dweller staring down. They appear only as the sun suddenly illuminates the multiple levels---an appointed moment in the ancient chronicles (very chip-like!) and then---as it moves away---the civilizations disappear once more. Well that's not exactly an original storyline, but it hit me that day, years ago. The underground begs for a storyline...In any case, it's a great place to walk & feel one has a completely private Chicago in front of them, and feel the grotto-like damp air as if one were in a wet cellar. And good lord, in addition to your magnificent writing, you simply explode a sight into photographic language and come out with an inner vision of the underground-as-metaphor-for-the-soul. Your harsh yellow up top, the deep ochre oranges on the bottom, the wonderful saturated & light-filled blues in the grills and 'balustrades' (not the right word but it's 2:50 a.m.)---this is your inner sense of light & presence, and it's just perfect for this always nocturnal place. Some of your light is like an apparition. I've walked this place at 3 in the morning, scared half to death but finding almost no one there, to my surprise. And this captures that feel---even though it's a day shot (from the light pouring in above). Just terrific Chip. I'll come back for more. This is just a bit of what you've posted since your (welcome-by-many) return...
There's just gotta be a saxophone and a distorted guitar seeping through those Jazzy Colours!! Really fabulous Poster quality Image
What a fantastic effect, Chip! I agree with you in that I too, couldn't get tired of seeing this scene over and over... can barely take my eyes off it as I admire it on my screen. Something so mysterious about it, and really love the way those lines, and lines and more lines seem to take over and dominate the entire scene. Makes you wonder where they start, and where they end. I'm searching and searching within the image as though through a maze, and yet can't seem to get from start to finish... but hey... reality check for me as well. A wonderful concept, my Friend! You always inspire me to the fullest!
I too have read about the cosmic source of the Chicago fire and the fire storm it created. But you can't blame the people of the day for blaming it all on an errant cow. The whole idea of such a destructive force caused by a bolide or a comet fragment would have been beyond their comprehension. Still how does one otherwise explain the creation of the city's two distinct realms, light and shadow without of full wrath of the natural world. Interesting these parts of cities. Not made to be people places, they are constructed with the most basic and logical of aesthetics. It's industrial and functional but not all that pretty. I'm sure the smell of spilled diesel hangs in the air like incense. After all, the rectangle is nature's shape - ask Saskatchewan. Curiously, the colours and shapes in the photo remind me of the 1997 suspense movie 'Cube'. There is a strange sense of impending danger of moving from one world to another.
Cool lighting and colors. Nice depth for a night shot!