Windy City Welcome

Last Sunday, four of us took the MegaBus from Ann Arbor to Chicago to take in the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. Arriving a bit after 11 Chicago time, we did some sightseeing/photography on the way to the exhibit. The Union Station in Chicago is a very photogenic building, both exterior, and interior.

I love the way the shadows from the columns hit the pilasters.

We arrived at the CCC around 12:20, and met up with one of my Flickr contacts, Trish, and two former Ann Arborites, Pedro and Angela. The Vivian Maier exhibit is astounding. Her photography is empathic, for want of a better word. In looking at the breadth of her work, one can easily see traces of Diane Arbus, Gary Winogrand, Henri C-B, etc. However, her images are truly her own. The image selection was wonderful, and I left the exhibit wanting more. I am sure that we will see more of her photography in the near future.

A sneaked shot of a part of the exhibit. Those are three of Vivian Maier's cameras in the display case.

There was also a big show of many prints from a Diana camera -- all were printed small - contact size, and while I liked the show, there were a few too many. After that, we went upstairs to see the Louis Sullivan architecture exhibit. The Chicago Cultural Center is a beauty of a building inside, and an orchestra was playing while we were there, adding a bit extra to our experience. Oh, and they have an Art-O-Mat there, which is very cool. The giftshop was closed, so I could not buy a token to use it.
We then made our way to Miller's Pub for a tasty lunch -- they have an extensive beer list - I had a Smuttynose Porter, which was quite tasty. We then bid goodbye to our Chicago friends and walked back to Union Station to wait for our bus. We had a relaxing ride back, arriving in Ann Arbor around 10 pm. A whirlwind of a trip, but it's always nice wanting more...

The group, with the exception of me...somebody has to be the photographer!

I used the Pentax ME and the Rolleiflex for most of my shots. I love the ME for street shooting, since it's aperture-priority, lightweight, compact, and fairly quiet for an SLR.