Wandering around the streets of Chicago by foot as The Wild Images Team has on many occasions, you begin to notice that the city is filled with artwork. There are sculptures in many of the parks and green spaces, and the downtown has murals on many of its buildings. Much of our photography from Chicago has included views of some of this artwork. And you never know when you will encounter a brightly colored wall. The above image is a case in point. This is the stairwell to the two story parking garage on the left. It has a single doorway beneath the image. And yet someone has taken the time to individually paint each of the bricks to create a multicolored wall of this stairwell. The Wild Images was struck by how the wall was brightly lit up by the afternoon sun while the surrounding buildings were darkened by the shadows of other buildings across the street. So we took some time to capture a series of photos. This is located on the 800 block of South Wabash Avenue. The building on the right with all of the intricate designs is the Loftrium, built in the year 1900 so it is a part of Old Chicago and has seen many changes surrounding it throughout the decades. The parking garage on the left of it is obviously much more recent, as is the sleek building that exists on its right beyond the view of this image. But The Wild Images Team is often searching for the old art deco architecture, it has beauty that is unmatched today. The Loftrium is a great example of this, and its designs are noticeable even though we only captured a small portion of the building. Meanwhile, the parking garage on the left has recently been painted with a large mural itself; it is now covered by the faces of women in a piece entitled “Stop Telling Women To Smile”, only about a month after the above image was taken. This is all part of a collective called the Wabash Arts Corridor, a partnership between Columbia University and various organizations working together to convert Wabash Avenue into an art hub. It has been described as a “living urban canvas” that connects the visual, performing, and media arts. Part of this corridor also includes the blocks of Wabash Avenue where the elevated train tracks cross over from Holden Court to the center of Wabash Avenue beginning at the 500 South block, and continuing northward for many blocks from there, until the turn left onto Lake Street just before the Chicago River. This section adds a nice urban feel with the characteristic elevated train tracks of downtown Chicago surrounded by mural covered buildings. The Wild Images Team will certainly have to visit here again sometime to photograph how everything is coming along. We love the way that urban art adds such character to our pictures in downtown settings, and Chicago is likely one of the best places in the world for this, especially considering how rare it is to find elevated trains in the world. The Wild Images Team has captured many other photos throughout downtown Chicago, including the blue skyscrapers of The Grant and One Museum Park, which is available for sale in our store. Blog posts from Chicago have documented the view of the Wabash Avenue elevated train, the ornate art deco brown buildings of old town Chicago, the interesting curious foxes of the small green space, when The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina sat at the stone desk, the hidden colorful fire escape framed by trees, the day The Wild Images Team finally found the heart of Chicago, the moment when giant headless zombies took over Grant Park, and at the head of the Navy Pier where sits the bronze sculpture Captain On The Helm. Blog posts from the nearby state of Minnesota include the moment that The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina becomes the Jolly Green Giant, the moment that The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina becomes the Little Green Sprout, and a scene of The Wild Images Team Coordinator Christina underneath a life size Jolly Green Giant. Blog posts from the somewhat nearby state of Texas include the art created by the line of sunken monuments at Cadillac Ranch and the textures created by thick layers of paint covering the monuments at Cadillac Ranch. A blog post from nearby state of Missouri includes the Route 66 sign of The Uranus Fudge Factory.
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