Author: mpriorie

Photographing Chicago since 1993.
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Looking Up, Looking Down, 2013

Looking-Up-Looking-Down

©2014 Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

This is from my first official portrait shoot. Olivia is on the left, and Natalie is on the right. Both women are really good friends and got lost in conversation while we hung out at New Wave Coffee in Logan Square. For me this was great because a) I was allowed to become invisible, b) the lighting was great, and c) both are very natural in this shot.

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Focused, 2013

Focused

©2014 Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

This is my friend, Geraldo. He is a freelance graphic designer. I hung out with him at his home for a couple hours and shot away while he worked. He’s very much a multi-tasker, but on occasion he can get lost in his work.

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Ravenswood Rapid Transit, 1996

Ravenswood-Rapid-Transit1996

©2014 Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

This was taken at the Montrose Brown Line station. It was not too long before this photo was taken that the CTA decided to ditch the rather wordy  names of the rapid transit lines in favor of a color coded system. This was originally known as the Ravenswood Elevated Line. The color system is so much easier to give out directions to someone. Would you rather tell someone that they need to take the O’Hare-Congress-Douglas to Damen or the Blue Line to Damen?

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Fire Escape, 1996

Fire-Escape-1996

©2014  Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

I believe this was taken somewhere in Lincoln Park. These old fire escapes always evoke a noir-like feeling in me. It’s   like in a old black and white film where the bad guy escapes on a rainy night down the fire escape in order to get away.

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Beer Bottles 1996

Beer-Bottles-Wrigleyville-1996

©2013 Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

This was near Belmont and Clark, I believe. This used to be a fairly common sight back then before things really changed. People would hang out in the doorways along Clark St. to drink or eat. They weren’t all homeless either– many were just young people who hung out there. As the area got better, the police started to crack down on loitering. This pretty much killed the Saturday night congregation of punk rockers by the Dunkin Donuts on Belmont and Clark. By 1996, Lake View was becoming way less edgy and way more stroller friendly.

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North/Damen/Milwaukee 1996

North-and-Damen-1996

©2013 Mike Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

So at this point, which was the summer of 1996, Wicker Park had become the focal point of Chicago’s music and art scene. The landscape was rapidly changing since I began photographing there a few years before. Gentrification had started to reach south on Milwaukee toward Division and north toward Armitage; to the west toward Western and the east toward Ashland as well. More new storefronts and Lofts began replacing the old and I began noticing the influx of newer people coming to the area. It would be a few years before I started to see baby strollers though.