Navy Pier Ferris Wheel Chicago Black and White Photography
Structural Geometry Rising Above Chicago’s Navy Pier
From this angle, the Ferris wheel stops feeling like an amusement ride and starts becoming a piece of engineering. I was drawn to the immense sweep of the rim, the radiating spokes and the small passenger gondolas suspended around the outer edge at Navy Pier in Chicago.
I framed the wheel tightly and from below, allowing only part of the circle to enter the photograph. That incomplete view makes the structure feel larger than the frame itself. The hub pulls everything inward while dozens of steel lines fan outward, crossing and overlapping until the geometry becomes almost abstract.
Black and white was the obvious direction for me. Colour would have competed with the structure, while monochrome reduces the scene to steel, shadow and light. Against the dark sky, the illuminated edges of the wheel separate cleanly and the individual gondolas become small repeating forms around the curve.
What I like most is the tension between complexity and order. There are cables, braces, supports and spokes everywhere, yet every element has a precise purpose. Nothing is random.
Navy Pier is one of Chicago’s most recognizable destinations, but I did not want a conventional postcard view. I wanted to isolate the wheel itself and concentrate on the structure that usually disappears behind the experience of riding it. From below, it became less about entertainment and more about scale, geometry and design.
© 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.
