Thank you for your hospitality, Chicago

Whenever I go to Chicago, I make it a point to go the Museum of Contemporary Photography. However, this past weekend when I was there, the museum was closed for installation.  I had limited time on this trip, so I had to resort to photographs mostly hung in hotels and restaurants.  If you can get past the bad lighting and reflective surfaces, here are some images that I came across.

Photograph at The Bedford restaurant in Wicker Park.

Photograph at The Bedford restaurant in Wicker Park.

I had asked our waiter who the photographer was for the above images, and he said “You know, everyone asks me that.  But I never got a straight answer from anyone that works here.”

At the Swissotel

At the Swissotel 

At McCormick Place, a convention center

This past weekend was the Chicago Marathon. There were these photo stations where participants could take photographs of themselves against these screens.  Not exactly fine art, but I can appreciate the interactive aspect.

The hallway of an apartment building on Randolph Street

The lobby of an apartment building on Randolph Street

Four monitors nestled in a grid of a cityscape.

At Gino’s East

What I got out of this study of images is that the hospitality/service industry likes to remind you where you are.  They love black & white images, as well as historical images that describe the city or place.

Fortunately, I did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Sullivan Galleries at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which included works by Jeanne Dunning, Roger Brown, faculty and students.

Jeanne Dunning 

Scott Hocking’s “Cast Concrete in the Auto Age 2008-present”