Tag: Chicago

Posted on

Park, 1996

park©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

When I was really young, I remember seeing these City Of Chicago parking lots all over the city. They were eventually phased out by the 1980’s . Back then, community shopping areas were the norm. The big box stores of today were not around. You had your neighborhood grocer, perhaps a fruit market, a bank, a library, and maybe a department store to buy some clothes. These lots allowed  you to park your car off the main street and then walk to whatever store you were going to.

Posted on

Downtown In Fog 1

hipstamaticphoto-550355973.998378hipstamaticphoto-550355943.916423©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.

Posted on

Big Hand

d83c139e-d3bd-4d38-a390-945335e0e405©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

Palmer Square is a sub section of the Logan Square neighborhood. The park host various art installations. This was part of one of them back in the fall. Don’t let the hand get ya.

 

Posted on

You Are Beautiful

0195206E-6F61-4B0F-846B-46A8C0C6AD12©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

It’s a simple, but positive message.  It was started here in Chicago. Back in 2002, a group of artists and designers printed stickers to pass on to others and to post them in various places in the hopes that its message would build people up. By 2019, it has grown from stickers that were found on walls and subway stations to public displays (like this one in Andersonville) near parks and schools. Its message has reached worldwide. You are not alone. Believe in yourself. We are all unique.

 

 

Posted on

1150 W. Addison

42285B2B-2BEF-47C9-A155-5BFE17AF7E21©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

Saw this after eating lunch in Wrigleyville one day. Sure, there are plenty of homes and businesses around there that have W signs, but this one caught my eye. It had such a uniqueness. Not much of that can be found anymore in the city.

Go Cubs!

Posted on

Scenes From Pilsen #2

img_1273img_1237©2019 Michael Priorie. All Rights Reserved.

These are a couple more great murals that I found walking around Pilsen last year. There are some really incredible artists here. To cover these over should be a crime. These works of art really capture what Pilsen is all about.

Posted on

Perkolator

hipstamaticphoto-537481502.065487©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.

Posted on

4 HR. Service, 1997

4-Hr-Service©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.

Posted on

North Town Frigidare, 1996

North-Town-Refrigeration-2©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.