The Rear View by Chipka
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Description
I live in a city and I’ve come to love a few others; because of this, I like to think that I’ve come to know something of those strange amalgam-entities, looming in various places around the globe. I like to think that I’ve learned how to see cities and how to understand, at least some small aspect of them.
I have learned, that in order to understand a city, you must not look at its face. What a city shows you, in front, is only what you wish to see: glamour and glitter, glitz and dazzle. To truly understand a city, you must see it from behind and from below and if you are fortunate, from within. This is not an easy proposition as the things you stand to see are sublime things: they are not beautiful. They are not ugly. Cities, from such a perspective are divorced from their Apollonian ideal; they reveal their more Bacchanalian nature. They are decadent, perverse, fragile, and beautiful. They are human; an extension of those who dwell in them…those who built them. They are as complex as any person, any group of people, and often as contradictory and paradoxical.
I thought of this as I stood on Corey’s back porch, smoking a cigarette. I heard voices: words in Spanish, and briefly, in Romanian. I heard cars, and the strange Doppler Effect of someone’s music, blasting out of automotive speakers. The music, I heard, was in a language I do not know, though I can boat an awareness of two words. I think they are good words: habibi: kiss, and wahara: strength. They are Arabic words, brown words, desert-tinged and tempestuous; they lilt with their own internal poetry. For me, they are beautiful words: I learned them from friends on a dance floor, once in Chicago and once in Prague. Like brandy, when spoken, like black pepper, when inhaled. On the night I heard such words, and others in Spanish and in Romanian, I recognized something about the city in which I live. It is at war with itself; it seeks to become its face, but the backside, the structure, is adamant in its refusal to simply go away. It supports the city’s face and keeps it from wrinkling. It sometimes erupts, like pimples or a rash, through compacted layers of garish, floozie-makeup. I like the uglier, rear portions of this city, where one may hear words in Arabic, blasted from car speakers as they ooze past Korean pharmacies, mosques, and Mexican lavanderias. In summer, I love the smell of tortillas and the musical dance of spoken Hindi beneath the grating, groaning rumble of public transportation, or the flatulence of diesel trucks, on their way from somewhere to somewhere. I love the non-silence of the night: humming, groaning, whispering, like the audio signature of some strange, background radiation. There are other cities, with other backsides, but of Chicago, I love the porches and the alleys, shadowed with cats, and car-stereos occasionally playing Arabic pop as old Korean men (in sandals with white socks) smoke cigarettes and read newspapers in a language I cannot comprehend.
I like the undersides of cities. I saw hedgehogs in one and cats in another. I smelled sewer gas in both and realized that wherever that smell lingers, so do humans. In that way, I suspect, each and every city (no matter the language of its people) is a place I might call home.
I took this picture, last week. It’s of the back of Corey’s building. I’ve seen so few sepia-tinged night photos, and I rather like the idea of seeing the backside (and underside) of Chicago in such a tinted manner. There is minimal postwork in this photo: I made it using my camera’s newly-discovered Sepia setting. I rather like that function and plan to use it a lot more.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great weekend.
Comments (18)
durleybeachbum
What a really amazing photo! It is like a stage set, maybe for WestSide Story, or Rent. Flabbergastingly GOOD!
Sea_Dog
This shot is a tremendous insight into seeing your city as you see it. As I read your narration - frequently glancing at the image - I could sense the feelings and sounds and smells you were experiencing. To accomplish that in the mind of a viewer is the mark of a true artist, chip.
RodS
A great night photo, and wonderful reflections on those entities known as cities. I find it interesting that this particular style of apartment building is so ubiquitous. We have many of these older style buildings in Kansas City - mostly in older sections of the city, of course. I really like the sepia treatment - it seems most appropriate.
CoreyBlack
Gee, Chip, my building actually looks interesting in this picture. I could actually LIVE in this place. Hey, wait a minute, I actually do! I agree with Andrea, it looks like some kind giant movie prop. I'm thinking one of those false walls with a light rig behind it. There's also this sort of eerie Hammer horror/classic film noir feel. I like this a lot, and the POV makes it all the better. Great shot!
jocko500
cool shot and lighting too. I saw these type of stairs in movies. Mostly in cops and gangsta movies. Arnold Schwarzenegger played in one of those movies
Orinoor
Oh yeah, this is city living, with brick and glass and wood. My favorite apartment was wood, glass, tile and radiators. The backside is always the best, that's where the living gets done. Fantastic shot!
mgtcs
I can clearly relate to the feeling you describe. In a way, its like Rorschach's journal entry in Watchmen ("This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face."), though, perhaps, just a LITTLE less psychopathic or depressing (joke). Your picture is both beautiful and interesting. It shows a hidden side which most do not see, but, at the same time, is not necessarily a "dirty secret", but, rather, something everyone must have, which also serves the purpose of being a private place where you retire to when you need to think or just relax. If it were in the right proportions, I'd definitely use it as a wallpaper for my computer.
auntietk
I want the top right-hand unit, because it has this beautifully unnecessary porch in front of the windows that nobody needs, but somebody built because it's of a piece with the rest of the structure of stairs and landings. The units on the other side don't have landings in front of the windows. It's a lovely, relatively private space, in that nobody has any reason to walk by it or through it on their way to somewhere else. Oh, I see the hatch in the roof, but the roof, the porch, doesn't need to be there. It's a nice touch. A bit of humanity in your city of millions. I love it that you had the guts, or the vision, to take a photograph of the back of an apartment building that you must have seen hundreds of times before. It's graceful despite its boxiness, and I love it because it's more than 2,000 miles closer to Reza's than I am right now. :)
Feliciti
like your thoughts and storys about cities... !!The photo reminds me of a stage-based from a Phil Collins Concert some years ago!! wonderful in sepia tones !!
whaleman
Lovely brickwork, especially over the windows. And everyone has a back porch connected with the fire escape, but still more. I suspect the lighting makes the building look better than it might in the day, but it is still an interesting place. With that back lighting, watching someone descend the stairs would be much like an original frame-flickering movie. A most interesting shot, made even better by knowing that Corey lives there!
helanker
Seems that the staircases are added much later than the building was build. What a fine looking place. I really like it and the shot itself is excellent. SO it indeed the narrative. :)
MrsRatbag
I love fire escapes like this; I lived once in a building that had a huge black steel construction on the back of it. It was where everyone spent their time, the social center of the apartments. Wonderful capture of the feel of it at night.
Crabbycabby
Amazing image.
kgb224
Wonderful capture and thoughts on your city. God Bless.
flavia49
fabulous image!!
jac204
The little city I live in has backsides like that, in fact the small wooden triple decker I live in echos that. Thanks for sharing.
myrrhluz
Light and lines and most especially lines of light! I like that in the darkness to the right are more lines. I like the vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, each as strong as the other and beautiful against the texture of the bricks. Lovely sepia tones, POV, and lighting. Excellent capture and fascinating read!
KatesFriend
This photo also speaks to how a city evolves and its structures adapt over time. The staircases and back 'patios' seem to be an extension or modification to the original building. The doorways look cut into the original brickwork - though they may have been windows once upon a time. The requirement of additional and external fire escape with access from all the apartments, probably thrust upon the owners by the city some decades ago. A stipulation that is now no longer required for modern buildings but we are reminded of its legacy here and there. The sepia effect is a nice choice, it seems to reflect the era of this building.