Bleak House by Chipka
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Description
Chicago is a city of time warps. In areas of the downtown core, the ghosts of Prohibition exert themselves in rivets and in metal, in bridges and in the stark, granite flourishes of old-era skyscrapers. In regions south of the loop, another warp brings itself to bear at the exact center of human focus. It is a subtle thing, diffuse at its fringes but solid and implacable at its core. In walking from Hyde Park to areas south, you leave the twenty-first century, and as you continue southward, you leave Chicago all together.
I experience this phenomenon regularly; often I am insulated by a bus or a train, but I am aware of the transition. If I visit Corey, or find myself with business anywhere but on Chicago’s far south side, I feel a sense of relief at the prospect of living in the twenty-first century, and experiencing it—in the city of my birth. Upon my return home, I leave Chicago’s northern reach, board a train (an odd distortion of Agara’s “Number-8”) and ride from the southwestern fringe of Lake Michigan into the Bedford-Stuyvesant region of New York in the early 1970s—long after the race riots, and the general decay that gripped the area. Then, buildings stood like teeth in troubled negotiation with the yawning gaps in between them. Now, on Chicago’s South side, a kind of Bedford-Stuyvessant “grunge layer” has been applied to nearly every aspect of reality. Vacant lots give shelter to rats and grasshoppers. Stores stand open for business with empty shelves. There is only one brand of cigarette available, and no one other than the African American inhabitants of the region will even touch the brand. Alcoholics and drug abusers panhandle while strung out prostitutes offer “companionship” for $2 and a cigarette. They’re nice prostitutes, however: they believe in Jesus, and only in the south side ghettos south of Hyde Park and north of Beverly is Jesus ever a part of a prostitutional sales pitch. If you’re a married man, you have nothing to worry about…they will keep their pants on because as South Side wisdom dictates, it’s not cheating if you don’t undress.
When I took this picture, I sat in a truck, waiting for my father to return from a quick shopping run in the scrap metal yard just out of view here. There are “check cashing places” next to the liquor stores here: but no banks. There are motels. They charge by the hour.
There isn’t much else in the area, and after dark, strange things wander the streets—I don’t know what they are. They’re not shaped like cats, and they’re too big to be rats.
For those of you into Science Fiction, this picture represents what I imagine when I read (and re-read, and re-read, yet again) Samuel R. Delany’s brilliant novel, Dhalgren. It takes place in a post apocalyptic world. It takes place in an entire city that looks like this small stretch of Chicago’s State Street. And I’m proud of this picture (and it’s modification) not because I like the area in which I took it, but in that I saw it with my own eyes and survived to tell the tale. As I look at this image, I think of Delany’s cryptic opening to Dhalgren: “to wound the autumnal city, so howled out for the world to give him a name, the in-dark answered with wind...” In the context of all 800+ pages of rampant urban nightmare, that cryptic beginning makes strange and poetic sense. I think of the “in-dark” answering all questions with wind, whenever I imagine this part of Chicago. I wonder who built the unique "house" that centers the view here. No one knows. It stands on a street nearly as devoid of human residents as its own borded up windows imply.
***
As always, thank you for viewing and reading and commenting, and I hope this is the start of a great week for everybody.
Comments (31)
MagikUnicorn
SIGNE DU TEMPS ;-) Wonderful light angle here ;-)
Eresther
An excellent point of vue!
jac204
As always, great image and narrative.
kgb224
Outstanding capture my friend.
geirla
Excellent photography and commentary! And those things.. they're probably just huge fat and happy rats... probably.
auntietk
Wow. My friend, sometimes you write something that leaves me speechless, jaw on floor, astonished. It's been happening more frequently lately (probably because you've been writing more) but THIS!! This is brilliant. You rock my world, dear one. Your words, along with the image, started a train of thought over here, and the most amazing conversation with Bill ensued. I think it's easy to lose sight of the profound effect our art can have on other people. Yours has that effect on such a regular basis ... and Bleak House is at the top of the list. Wow.
Alex_Antonov
Outstanding !
CoreyBlack
This is a great shot! Very evocative and stark. As someone who was born in New York, the allusions to the old Bed-Stuy are apt. This shot brings to mind the opening segment of 1971's The French Connection where Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider chase a drug pusher into a vacant lot and beat the crap out of him. This reminds me of the long shot, before the POV changes to an even more desolate-looking vacant lot between two buildings. Your text is extremely evocative; I've walked through areas like this and you bring the feeling of open-spaced paranoia tangibly into my mind. You can almost feel neighborhoods like this along your spine. I like this shot very much. As for Dhalgren great book...it's one of those books you can kind of live inside of. As I recall it took me about 4 months just to get through the beginning of it. Once again, fantastic work.
watapki66
Wonderful shot, desolation in the city, does make one think. Wonderful story too!
beachzz
This couldn't BE any bleaker or more desolate. In the middle of a city, such pure, raw emptiness seems completely counter to what a city is supposed to be. You caught that feeling here, and in few words allowed me to feel that total loss of humanity.
dadon72
Another fantastic piece of work Chip... right down to the vapor trail slashing across the sky. Your postwork and the picture itself really does have that post apocalyptic feel to it and indeed it was my first thought as I first viewed it before reading your dialogue... so cold and empty... lifeless. Brilliant work Chip.
Roxam
brilliant image
helanker
What a fantastic image you got here. You did beautifully and exiting. And I have alot of fun reading how you see the world, how you imagine things. Amazing.
durleybeachbum
Breathtaking! Perfectly evokes what Corey so aptly calls 'open-space paranoia'. Viewing and reading your work with my coffee first thing in the morning certainly is better for my brain than yesterdays local paper; you know the sort of thing...Piddletrenthide Voluntary Fire-service team beats Affpuddle Hedge-layers at Bowls.
thecytron
AmaZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzing photo manipulation!
MrsRatbag
Yes, that's how I imagine Bellona too...fantastic image!
dakotabluemoon
This is absolutely wonderful work and the stories u do is fantastic u should be a writer of stories i am sure u have some great ones at that.
flavia49
magnificenr work!
Meisiekind
You certainly got me with this one dear Chip! - right between the eyes! Bravo!!!
sandra46
SUPERLATIVE WORK AND WRITING
myrrhluz
Excellent! I remember seeing areas similar to this when my sister and went from Oak Park to our hotel near the John Hancock Center. When we left Oak Park we skirted over an entirely different world. A world of boarded up, graffiti covered buildings, cracked pavements and scraggly, unkempt vegetation. What I love about this image is it shows the soul of this place, with the ghosts of destroyed lives and unfulfilled potential, coming up from the ruined pavement and buildings. Wonderful POV, down close to the pavement. There is nothing joyous or light here. Excellent choice of colors which emphasize not only the bleakness, but also the stark existence. Terrific title. One overriding image from Dickens's "Bleak House" is an endless, futility to trying to succeed. In the book the two wards of Chancery struggle hard to break through an impenetrable mass of restraints to get for themselves that which they have a right to. Their failure destroys the life of one and the sanguinity of the other. Your words and image examine the futility now and the sadness of things past, such as the unique house which once lived in a brighter and more hopeful place. It is not just the people who live in a world of absent hope, but the land and buildings as well. Your image and words express the cry of both.
SIGMAWORLD
Excellent capture!
elisheba
This is extremely moody indeed. Light and tones make this capture very special, this is a wonderful photograph Chip. The contrast between black and white and sepia parts is pretty subtle and expresses very well both coldness and heat we can find in big cities full -or supposed to be full- of people. Never been to the states but your shots make me feel like visiting Chicago if I ever cross the ocean in that direction :)
Ac-Dc
wow!!! a stunning work, excellent.
ladyraven23452
great stuff.
blondeblurr
The ref. to Bedford-Stuyvesant made me take note, I remember my father in Germany, smoking Peter Stuyvesant cigarettes (also Havana cigars!) I wonder, if there is a connection ? anyway, it could be a co-incidence?...BTW he is dead now, no - he didn't die of lung-cancer...(what a relief) You know Chip, I think I can detect also 3 shades of very slight sepia tones/tints, similar to my Mr.Bo post ? brill, if I may say so... Your story has been told so well and answered by just about everybody else and much better than I ever could, nothing much left for me say except, why do prostitutes believe in Jesus, are they looking for some salvation or are they thinking along the lines of Maria Magdalene? They appear to be heavenly creatures and it all seems pretty much necessary (for some) and as you said - they are nice. BB
EricSBauer
Looks like that show on TLC (or maybe Discovery), Life After People. Very erie looking which is awesome. Perfect composition.
nowadayhero
Very very very very very very very very cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fantastic atmosphere! Looks very postapocalyptic and secret at once! Like in computer game - a lot of fear, a lot of curiosity... Just amasing!
zulaan
Love atmosphere ! Impressive shot and postwork !
miashadows
Love the mood and very interesting info.Excellent capture !