Chicago Architecture Black and White Photography
Old and Modern Buildings Layered Across the Chicago Skyline
Chicago rewards anyone who looks closely at its architecture. In this photograph, what interested me was not a single landmark but the way completely different buildings overlap, compete and eventually become part of one larger visual structure.
I framed the scene tightly so the city almost becomes an abstract arrangement of windows, masonry, glass and repeating vertical lines. A modern office tower fills much of the background with a rigid grid of dark and light rectangles. In front of it, older buildings introduce completely different details—arched windows, decorative stonework, brick and ornament. Then another dark facade cuts sharply through the middle of the composition.
That layering is what made me stop. Chicago contains so many architectural periods within a relatively compact downtown, and from the right viewpoint they can appear almost compressed together. One building partially hides another, while narrow gaps reveal fragments of structures farther back.
Black and white helped me concentrate on those relationships. Without colour, the differences become more about texture, geometry, light and scale. The windows repeat almost like patterns, while the older decorative surfaces interrupt that repetition in unexpected places.
I often photograph architecture this way. Rather than stepping back to show an entire building, I look for combinations that reveal how a city has grown over time. Here, several generations of Chicago architecture share a single frame, each one retaining its own character while becoming part of something much larger.
© Dan Kosmayer, 2011
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About My Fine Art Photography
Every photograph in my collection comes from my own travels, explorations, and years behind the camera.
I create my work as photographic art rather than mass-produced decoration. From street portraits and abandoned places to landscapes, architecture, and the unusual subjects I discover along the way, each image begins with something that made me stop and look.
My photographs are available in multiple sizes so the same image can work in anything from an intimate wall space to a large statement installation.
