Back End View by Chipka

Photography • Urban/Cityscape • posted on Apr 03, 2012

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Description

It is easy to see a different city when one walks through the alleys and gangways in Chicago. The front streets, the “face streets” show you only what the city itself wishes for you to see. But if you walk through the interstitial places, you will see something else. I work (as of now) in a dressed-up, recycled place. I work within walking distance of Reza’s Restaurant. (Because of my particular schedule, I won’t be having Persian food on my breaks, but I’m sure that I’ll find countless excuses to meander over to one particular Persian and simply look at—or photograph—it.) Reza’s, like nearly every other establishment in the area, is a shift in context: an ancient, industrial aspect of the city made friendly to non-industrial eyes. This shift in context is relevant only to the fronts of buildings, however. Access to alleys gives one access to another aspect of Chicago—the old city. And like any old city, this other Chicago has stories embedded in its grime. I don’t know the stories here, but I’m sure something will emerge at some point. This is the hind-end of a building I knew in another life. I’d held another job around the corner from my current place of residence, and I saw this wall, this briked-in window, and this impromptu vent, on countless occasions. I saw these things again. Last week. The bricks look the same. The entire alley looks the same, though different drips and dabs of graffiti have colonized half-hidden surfaces. I’ve always liked this stretch of Chicago alley-space. It has always inspired stories, and for as long as I’ve known it, this is actually the first photo I’ve ever taken of the place (a fragment of the place, anyway.) And now, as I look at this image, and present it here, I wonder at the stories embedded in the grime and in the flaking mortar, patched and re-patched over various successive decades. I know that stories might emerge from this image, and when they do, I’m sure that I’ll relay at least one of them here… As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.

Comments (25)

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kgb224

2:31PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Welcome back my friend. I trust the new job will be a joy. Superb capture and post work my friend. God Bless.

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Faemike55

2:35PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Nice to see you back with us and a great way to return with this photo and discussion

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cfulton

2:43PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

So many questions are springing to mind... I really like the weathered brickwork. Clive

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helanker

2:47PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

OH! How I love this brickwork. It is so awesome. The texture... I bet you can read it :D I wish you good luck with your new job, Chip :)

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KatesFriend

2:54PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Your narrative brings to mind an old (1970 vintage) BBC TV drama called "The Stone Tape". With its premise that the materials which make up walls and other stone structures are capable of being impressed with the events of the past. And these impressions or echoes can be experienced over and over again by certain people who are sensitive to such phenomena. Thus the manifestation of ghosts in creepy old buildings. Of coarse, as with all dramas of this nature, terrible things happen as the investigators delve into forces they do not comprehend. I hope these old walls will give up their stories without such a body count. I like the eerie mix of light and dark on the brick work. Perhaps meaning that this wall has born witness to events both good and bad over its lifetime. Or perhaps plans put on hold and then forgotten.

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Meisiekind

3:33PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Sometimes the back end is the best end!! Hehehe... I really like the lines and rough textures here Chip! So well seen and done!

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icerian

3:46PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Thank you dear friend for your comment on my last upload, I like your beautiful and mysterious Chicago.

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durleybeachbum

4:12PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

Marvellous layers of history both public and personal.

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flavia49

7:21PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

great capture

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NefariousDrO

8:33PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

What a cool photo, the textures are captivating. It is fascinating how the innards of the city stay unchanged as its face alters over time.

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MrsRatbag

9:56PM | Tue, 03 April 2012

What a great scene; the bricks look absolutely ancient! I used to walk all the alleyways in Long Beach when I lived there in my early 20s. They were lined with fruit trees and wildflowers, and I could pretend I lived in a small village in some other country. I miss those walks, and I'll be the alleys are nothing like that now, if they even still exist. Great find, Chip!

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bmac62

12:02AM | Wed, 04 April 2012

Fascinating. Those bricks maybe over 100 years old. Whoever mixed and spread the mortar and set each of those bricks must be long gone...his carbon returning to from whence it came. Yet here is a memorial to a skilled laborer. To bad we don't know his name. This kind of a shot really gets the wheels turning:)

whaleman

1:50AM | Wed, 04 April 2012

I always enjoy inspecting brickwork, and this is a very traditional type of pattern in the courses. But one does wonder at who lived or worked at one time behind the now bricked up window. Are they still inside there? DO they have real silver coins in their rotting pockets?

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