St. Regis Chicago Skyscraper In Fog Black And White | Wall Art

Angular Glass Tower Rising Into Low Chicago Fog

I photographed this view from the water at the end of a Chicago architecture river cruise, when my wife and I were spending time exploring the city and its extraordinary concentration of modern buildings. What immediately held me was the angle of The St. Regis Chicago. The tower rises behind a dense wall of glass high-rises, then seems to lose its upper floors entirely as the structure disappears into low cloud and fog.

The portrait composition exaggerates that vertical climb. At the bottom of the frame, the Chicago River creates a dark horizontal base, while the steel Lake Shore Drive bridge cuts across the city with its trusses, stone piers, traffic, and pedestrian level clearly visible. Above it, curved residential towers and rectilinear office buildings stack tightly together. The St. Regis is different. Its narrow, faceted form pushes straight upward, giving the photograph a much sharper sense of height and scale. That architectural tension is exactly what draws me to skyscraper wall art photography—buildings become more than records of a skyline when perspective, weather, and structure begin working together.

Black and white felt right for this photograph because color was not what interested me here. I wanted the repeating windows, steel framework, reflective glass, hard edges, and tonal separation between the buildings and the heavy sky to carry the image. The fog removes the expected clean outline from the tallest tower and gives the upper part of the photograph an uncertain edge; the building is enormous, yet its top simply vanishes.

I also like that this is unmistakably Chicago without depending on a wide postcard view. The river, bridge, layered downtown architecture, and skyscrapers establish the place, but the photograph is really about vertical scale and the way the city meets the weather. For collectors who know Chicago, or anyone drawn to contemporary architecture and black-and-white urban photography, it has a strong graphic presence that can sit naturally in a modern home, office, or architectural space.

I offer this photograph as a limited edition of only 10 prints. Each print is made with archival pigment inks on premium archival paper, personally signed by me, and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. For collectors who are drawn to recognizable structures and places, this photograph also sits naturally within my landmark wall art photography.

© Dan Kosmayer, 2024