PHOTOGRAPHY
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
I love to take pictures in foggy weather. It’s mysterious and unpredictable. Chicago’s downtown area (Streeterville, Magnificent Mile, The Loop) is perfect for this. It allows for the city to become something else. It romanticizes the skyline. It makes you truly appreciate the beauty of this city.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
Perkolator Coffee is located in Portage Park, a northwest side neighborhood of Chicago. I go there regularly to work on photos, to blog for my website, or to work on a graphic novel that I’m co-writing. Sometimes you just need to get out of the house and change the scenery in order to clear your head and let yourself run free and create. Perkolator reminds me of the coffeehouses I went to in the early nineties. I would spend the afternoons reading Beat literature and drinking bottomless cups of coffee until my hands were shaking. Good times.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
I found these two great photos of my friend , Tim on a roll of Ilford that I shot back in June of 1997. Most of the roll were photos of my Urban Views project. From what I can see, Tim was apparently tagging along with me that day down in the South Loop. These two photos really capture the real Tim. He wasn’t posing for band pics and looking like a rock star–he was just being himself. I miss that the most.
Happy 42nd Birthday Tim– All Eyes On The Stars.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
Of all the things that have disappeared in Wicker Park, I believe this store front has remained unchanged through it all. I’ve been going to the area since about 1992-93 and this is the same sign that probably has been up for decades. Everything around them has been gentrified. Back in 1993, there was not a lot of places to go into down this stretch and the area would get sketchier the further south you went down Milwaukee Avenue. I used to have this cleaners sign as my landmark to “turn back” to safety. Of course, it probably wasn’t as bad as I originally perceived it.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
The landscape of the Lincoln Square neighborhood has undergone major changes over the last twenty years. While still hanging on to it’s German roots, this area has definitely gotten more upscale as bistros and specialty shops have opened here. This was the old North Town (as the area was once known) Frigidaire. The old sign hailed back to the days of the local repair man and sales store. These were the days before buying an appliance at Best Buy. This storefront has been gone for years, replaced by a Potbelly’s Sandwich Shop and a Chase Bank.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
This great old sign was beckoning for me to capture it one day in 1996. Diversey-River Bowl is located on Logan Boulevard and Diversey Parkway. Much of the area has changed since this photo was taken. New condo lofts and retail have taken over by the river, Â removing the grittiness the area once had. Today, Â the sign has been updated with a LED readout. The Lathrop Homes (public housing complex) Â just east of there remains as the city is currently renovating them.
©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.
It’s amazing how much this area has changed since I stood in the cold drizzle to photograph this scene. This was near Chicago Avenue and Odgen. New homes went up around here since then and a lot of the older homes were rehabbed. That day, I was more interested in capturing the low clouds that shrouded the skyline. Didn’t quite see how much would change in twenty years.
©2018 Michael Priorie.  All Rights Reserved.
My cousin Chris had been asking me for a while if I could take some photos of him. I finally gave in around the end of this past summer. We approached this as a pseudo band photo shoot. I tried to bring out the “metal” in him while also implying some of the dark humor that he’s known for away from the serious persona that the metal bassist brings.
©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.
©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.
MICHAEL A. PRIORIE 