Upward by Chipka
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Description
On the day that I stumbled across an access-point to The Zone, I did serve as something of a Stalker, only I didn’t really take sullen travelers into a region of shifted reality. I simply showed three visitors (Two of them from London) how to get to a particular, ugly, and unused bridge. That wasn’t stalking in the sense of a Tarkovsky film, or a fearless, mildly-radioactive Ukrainian tour guide, but it was stalking. The streets of Chicago are shifty and illusive. Like wild animals, they possess their own desires and agendas, their own dim instincts, and on the day in question, it took a Chicago street-reader to guide three extremely nice people to one only-vaguely-nice bridge. It was a short journey (or maybe we just took the short route). Who can be sure. At any rate, we paused for photos, at some point along the way, and this is one of the photos I nabbed. In true Stalker form, I realized—only in retrospect—that this image was captured on the wrong side of a Do Not Enter sign. The construction workers and various security officials with walkie-talkies seemed to have no problem with four interlopers exiting the area in question, but considering the actual location, they probably thought we were visitors who’d stepped into the wrong parking lot and were looking for the nearest Starbucks. Or maybe the Do Not Enter sign referred to another area, a forbidden one: we, after all, had simply trekked through squishy, squelchy mud, bird feathers of mysterious origin, and quite a lot of industrial grunge. The image here represents the tail end of the grunge.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and at some point (soon I hope) I’ll be able to catch up on commenting as well.
Comments (8)
jendellas
What is the huge building on the left? Grungy the steps maybe but the sky is beautiful & bright but it looks cold.
Chipka
That big prison-looking thing on the left is Merchandise Mart. It's huge.
MrsRatbag
An intimidating view! It makes me feel so small...
MagikUnicorn
Great POV almost no more snow ;-) not the case for Montreal & Boston :)
Faemike55
Great capture and commentary Chip! thanks
giulband
Very very suggestive image it seems to track the right way to go to !!!
durleybeachbum
I could not live or work in a town like this! Thankfully my environment is mainly built to human scale.
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. God bless.
anahata.c
I know this stairwell well. And I fully resonate with the streets of downtown and how they feel like stalking-ways that can lead to places forbidden and (in some cases) wholly unwanted. The underground, as visible from the street level, always struck me as a Chicago version of Calvino's Invisible Cities, with its own peculiar mesh of strange tales and lives lost in time. (I envisioned that when the sun struck correctly, the usual 2 or 3 levels would open into countless levels, and boom, you had invisible cities...) And there are all kinds of places-of-emergence in downtown too---this being a prime example. Like the old myths-of-emergence that ancient cultures dreamt of, one feels, on these dingy gold-brown stairs, that they're emerging from a dark kingdom to a world of brawn and commerce and monoliths---the big bad world that the hero is supposed to transcend. You got all that here. There's also something so visceral about these steel stairs, to anyone who's walked them: They're hard to CLIMB, they make you tired, they never end, they feel, on the feet, the way they look, on the eyes; and when the highrises emerge into sight, they look so stolid and unbending you almost want to go back down. (Well, they ARE unbending---I assume if they bent, they'd be considered reeeeealllllly bad high rises.) You got the essence of the climb, and how that old monster Merchandise Mart just dominates the view as you move up---prison-like, yes (your comment), yellow and unreal, one of the hugest buildings on earth (still, I assume), sitting like a monolith. I worked in there, btw, for a few seasons: I helped some designers sell furniture in their heavy duty display rooms, one design company after the next. It was so other worldly, those endless designer showrooms, many without windows, down miles and miles of hallway---as you know, that's a huuuuuge splat of a building and once inside, you just walk forever. People who were into high-end design and lots of money, would pass you in silence. A friend who worked there said he, by the end of every week, wanted to go to the biggest showroom---and the poshest and most exclusive---walk over to a très expensive sofa, and piss on it---loudly---for 10 minutes. I understood. It's a whole other world in there---I assume it still is. (You had to 'know' people to get in. I got in because it was a job with a furniture company.) In your picture, it could be a vast government center where they're scheming to get your identity and life. And it glows, in your shot. A terrific truthful shot, with that deep blue sky to set off all that gold...