Slow Change Beneath a White Sky by Chipka
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Description
Things change and will continue to change: such is the nature of life, and it’s an aspect of what gives life its beauty. Humans recognize transients and in many respects, it is transience that gives so much meaning to all things human. Permanence is comforting…for a time…but it becomes stifling. Boring. Confining. Low speed transience give the impression of permanence; it is change at an imperceptible rate. I noticed this while standing on the el platform at Sheridan Road, waiting for a southbound Red Line train.
I’d lived close to that stop, once upon a time…and though I wasn’t a conscious photographer at the time, I was taken by the dirty, urban feel of accumulation of bricks marking the skin of a particular building. Apartments occupy (and occupied) the upper floors…the lower floors held something else: convenience stores, probably…or they were unused and empty. I can’t remember. Now, a coffee house occupies the bottom of the building featured here. It’s an intimate space, a new space, compared to the age of the building itself. It’ll be there for a while, for a few months/years/decades…and once its season ends, it will be gone. As of now, the coffee-house is a part of a neighborhood I once knew, a different neighborhood that I know, and…in time…it’ll be a figment: a feature of a non-existent neighborhood that I remember. I think that’s a valuable thing, and this image marks a frozen moment of slow, imperceptible change.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you’re all having a great week.
Comments (11)
Cyve
GReat capture!
flavia49
wonderful capture and colors
CoreyBlack
Man am I ever familiar with this edge-of-Boystown train station! For over 20 years now I've been seeing this place on a near daily basis. And the funny thing is that even though the neighborhood has changed in a subtle, incremental, way, this station looks the same as it did in the 1980s, and probably slightly worse, if that's possible. Like you, I don't remember what used to be down below, or even nearby, but it seems it was probably and array of slightly scurvy mom and pop convenience stores. Funny how that is now part of the past. Love this shot! It's always interesting to see another person's take on something familiar. Also lets the rest of world see just how dreary Chicago is in the winter.
Wolfenshire
What a cool photo, I like the depth perspective and pov. The old buildings give it a pleasant mood.
Faemike55
Very cool capture interesting how cahnge can be on the inside and not show it on the outside
durleybeachbum
You have so eloquently expressed that process which I also notice in my own suburb, having lived here for over sixty years.
auntietk
You've got me thinking about familiarity. This is a scene that you and Corey know intimately. Who knows how many minutes/hours/days you've collectively spent standing there? I, on the other hand, have never seen this place, either in person or in a photograph. At least not that I recall. If I were standing there right now (okay, tomorrow, when the sun is up), I would have to take about a million pictures in order to capture all the interesting and beautiful details. The familiarity has rendered this dull to you in some ways, but my "new" eyes see angles, brickwork, chimneys, textures, metal, that lovely curve of track, the old wood of the platform. Character. History. Slow change doesn't enter into it, history-wise, for me. It's just "now," and in that "now" it's beautiful. Just look at the way they capped those windows. And the staggered walls giving the opportunity for more windows, and those windows look out right onto the track. Life observing life, if the drapes are open. You see ... it's all normal to you, but my eye is busy, happy, imagining the photo ops and the thoughts that come. Thanks for this, my friend! :)
AZBO
I love the transparency of the building on the right which you can see right through-Must look great lit up at night
sandra46
SUPERLATIVE WORK
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God Bless.
MrsRatbag
It's a fascinating shot in many ways, and as always your ramble has got me thinking too, about places I've known well and would no longer recognize, and thinking about the possibility that as memory retraces the lineaments over and over perhaps we bring them into reality again...strange thoughts, but then I'm not quite awake yet ;}