Snapshot of a City on a Late Summer's Night by Chipka
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Description
The City shows her age at night. It is a thing of shadows and a thing of silence and vacancy. Her defenses are down, and so anyone searching her face may find signs of her truest identity. This is the beauty of the city at night: when even nightclubs and other such places of distraction are closed. Only indigents roam the streets now, and rats. Vermin, as many may call them, but what is a rat but a reminder of human filth? What is indigence but a failure of a society to include even its most difficult citizens?
On the night I saw Chicago’s age, I saw rats and indigent human beings. I saw spiders, and most surprisingly, I saw Chicago as she once was. A bold place. A big place. Something other than the result of reverse migration. There’d been a time when Chicago lived in a different way, when there were tensions and pleasures in the air that no longer exist. For a short time, Chicago was a city charged with a kind of existential electricity: people doing things, people feeling things, people expressing themselves in ways that are simply impossible now.
On the night that I saw Chicago’s age, I saw myself and my shadow. I was a total peace: this was not surprising. I had spiders and rats for company. For anyone who has taken the time to watch city-rats, you’ll know how industrious, amusing, and flagrantly mammalian they can be. Where we build skyscraping temples to the holy duo of Banking and Commerce, they build nests out of our own castoffs: they do so at the roots of our monster towers, their beady little eyes gleaming in the night’s hepatic light, their bewhiskered noses twitching. I like rats. I do not want wild ones for company, but I like them nonetheless. Everyone and everything has its place, and if there was no place for rats, they wouldn’t exist. Cats would go hungry. I prefer a world with well-fed cats, a world with skyscraper temples built to false gods with rat-nests clustered and burrowed at their feet. I like a world with massive, iron bridges that hum in the dark, when the wind blows softly through their supports.
I cannot say that I have a great love for Chicago, but I do have a great love for the aspects of existence that any major city might show.
I think of these things as I peer at this picture, and I hope that you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (28)
bmac62
Chip...I've been away too long from your amazing Chicago based postings. That has to be a 100 year old plus bridge. The rivets remind me of what I've seen in photos of the Titanic. Now, night photography is becoming your fortay. The light eminating from the street lights remind me of diamond studs...glistening and brilliant in the dark of night. As for your descriptive narrative...you are a master of this genre. How about a ninja trip/visit to New York City to make sure NYC rats are up to par with their Chicago relatives? Lol. Great piece tonight.
KatesFriend
Goodness me there is something about the dead of night that can bring tranquility to the most restless mind. Looking at your picture, I can hear distant rushing sound of cars driven by other enticed by the darkness and colour of the night world. Perhaps it is because now the city can breath, free of the congestion of people and vehicles which blot out the its silent beauty. And yes, the notion of rats trespassing and thriving at the food of towers built to flatter Man's greatest avarus - greed - gives all of us hope that greed will not conquer absolute as long as those clever little creatures are around. And starbursts are cool!
jocko500
love the night shot
ragouc
Very good shot and picture. Very good colour tone.
beachzz
The shapes, the lights, the glow of this shot are incredible. You walk places most people wouldn't go alone and you find the most amazing sights. And then you find the most amazing things to tell us about those sights--wow!!
whaleman
I do love that bridge structure, but I am quite happy that there are no rats in Alberta. I have had enough trouble because I like mice.
kgb224
Stunning capture my friend. I cannot say that i am fond of rats.
Sepiasiren
wow--another amazing shot
helanker
Yes, this is a really beauty of a shot, Chip. I like it alot, but you really understand how to make your photos even more attractive, by telling a beautiful little story with it. You dont know how much I love these little stories with your photos.
rainbows
A wonderful capture and write up, dear Chip. Excellent work. Hugs. Di. xx
durleybeachbum
I beats me how you make places like this look SO beautiful!! I suppose in this pic it is the masterful composition and the unifiying colour that do it. FANTASTICALLY good!
KateBlack10
Really great shot and narrative as only you can tell it - great job
njb2000
Lovely golden lighting and a great story line!
jophoto
Homage to a great city...Love the image.
flavia49
wonderful pic!!
auntietk
I'm sure the engineers who designed this bridge had some solidly practical reason for including that gorgeous, graceful, beautifully sweeping curve! Arcs are to me what spirals are to you ... the shape of grace ... the way things should be. This speaks to me in the language of movement and harmony. I can tear my eyes away and look at the rest of the image, but my heart returns again and again to that curve.
jmb007
bonne photo!
sandra46
BEAUTIFUL! GORGEOUS IMAGE!
jac204
The first time I saw Chicago in 1968 it kind of popped up in the middle of corn fields as I watched out my window on the Penn Central Lake Shore Limited. It seemed so much of a separate entity compared to Eastern Seaboard cities that seem to run from one into another. Thank you for your narratives and pictures of the city.
CaressingTheDark
absolutely beautiful capture
MrsRatbag
This bridge looks so much like the Fremont Bridge in Seattle; must be from the same design! I love the golden light you've bathed it in. Cities at night are a whole 'nother world, full of magic and possibility...
Orinoor
I love how you talk about your images in terms of reality, symbols and history; it adds such a rich experience to an already visually rich photo.
RodS
Nice one, Chip! Love your night photos! Late night - realm of indigents, rats, and photographers....LOL! Been there, done that. The photographer part, I mean...
praep
Really beautiful lights there. Well done snapshot.
danapommet
This is a glorious capture and I agree with Denise - it is the golden hue that the lighting washes the rivet laden metal bridge - that makes this shot a winner. Dana
lick.a.witch
Night truly does add beauty, even to steel. Fabulous capture. ^=^
myrrhluz
It is the curve that grabs my attention too, made more compelling by the straight lines leading up to it and all those rivets. I love the glow, the bright lights that seem to be bobbing around, the softly intersecting shadows, and the rays coming down from the lights. Great shadows of the rivets. I've never seen a crossing bar for a sidewalk before. This is a fantastic shot! I love it!
bullsnook
Beautiful. got a black and white version?