There are times when encroaching shadows remind me of traveling somewhere at close to the speed of light…everything narrows to a single point: an odd sort of fish-eye distortion in which everything is in front of you. Even things that are behind you remain in your forward view. As you race forward, things you pass simply move from center to the right, the left, up, or down…and then fade. As simply as that. This was originally supposed to be a radically different picture: with colors. Boredom impelled me to play around with it. Well, actually a chat with a particular someone in Russia inspired me. He’s got a photo shoot (it’ll be over by the time you read this.) And as I thought of one particular, lanky Russian dude, armed with his swanky (professional) camera, I wondered what he was planning to capture, what he’d been commissioned to create. I’ll find out, but for now he’s being hush-hush about the whole thing. He usually is, before producing something deliriously colorful or enigmatic…or something else that probably has no word of expression in English. At any rate, Victor—that certain someone—is a part of what became of Chinatown (at least in the reality of this picture.) We spoke of writing, Victor and I. We talked about Russian cinema. He’s given me “homework;” I’m to familiarize myself with popular and classic examples of Russian cinema from the Soviet Era until now. It’ll help me to understand the common Russian mindset (or something like that.) It’ll help me to better write for a Russian audience and capture photographs for Russian viewers. As I plan to live in Moscow, I’ll need to do something other than teach English, and so Victor has hired himself as my guide. It’s also because of Victor that I learned an odd fact. One of the most revered television adaptations of Sherlock Holmes is Russian made. Somehow that really doesn’t surprise me. It’s achieved global fame…sort of. Kind of…in a way. And well…in thinking about Sherlock Holmes I got to thinking about mystery in general…and that led me to think about Chicago and how it might look with a bit of “mystery treatment.” That’s where the darkened entrance to Chinatown comes in. As I fiddled and fiddled a bit more, I began to see a familiar place shrink and distort. Though I am unable to travel at (or even near) the speed of light, I found myself fascinated by the sort of “relativistic effect” this picture began to acquire. Though nothing shrinks into a fish-eye distortion, there’s a weird corridor of light that seems to compress itself and rob definition from everything around it. This particular “relativistic effect” also made me think of Film Noir, and what hard-boiled detective might be wandering Cermak Street, and what femme fatal was lurking (in a red dress) just off screen. As I look at this prior to posting it, I still wonder. There may be a story with this image, later…but for now…here’s Chinatown Noir, and the bizarre thought of Humphrey Bogart speaking in Russian, while traveling somewhere at close to the speed of light. If he does that on earth, he might just get there before he leaves. Hmmm…wouldn’t that be a story! Funny how my mind works and what associations bloom like strange, vigorous fungi! I like that, however, since it’s allowed me to revisit Chinatown (with Corey and with Victor) in a slightly different way. This photograph was actually taken on the day Corey and I wandered in search of a bridge, and so Corey is as much an inspiration here as Victor. Now if only the three of us could roam that part of Chicago, searching for good food and interesting subjects, while just to our left, in an alternate reality, a private investigator got tangled up in webs of deceit woven by a woman named Magnolia (Maggie to her friends or victims who won’t live long enough to ever call her that.) *** As always, thank you for viewing, commenting and reading.