City Eyes Blog

Playing Catch-Up – Gary Exploration Part 2

May 14

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Residential, Schools | 2 Comments

The Garython continues. I never thought I’d be able to span two posts with one day, but apparently we hit a lot.

Following the small housing unit that we hit, we figured we’d take a trip to a large apartment complex across from a high school that I had been observing. Time hasn’t treated it well and it’s falling apart. The stairs that lead up to the higher floors are crumbling, flights stacked upon each other because they had become detached from the concrete walkways.

The rooms were all shaped the same, but looked completely different from each other:

Two Windows

White Room

Pink Room

Walls are gone

We left the crumbling building for a newer one – a recently closed high school. Jordan had been here before (shortly after it had closed), so he brought us through to a few interesting areas.

First off – the band room:

Empty Band Room + Trophy

We walked back through the empty hallway and found a storage room in which all of the extra instruments and band outfits were stored. As much as I wanted to have one of them for myself, I didn’t want to take away the chance for others to see this crazy stuff:

The Band Storage Room

We made our way upstairs to the auditorium. I had one of those moments where I’m just struck by how such an incredible area can just be left to rot like it has. Since the first time Jordan had gone, some scrappers had managed to cut down a giant metal chandelier but apparently didn’t have the smarts to figure out that they couldn’t get it out of the door.

The Auditorium. Missing chandelier is on the floor near the entrance in the center.

Towards the stage.

On the Stage

Behind the stage was what seemed like an extra rec room, although I have no idea what its true purpose might be. I would have guessed that it might have been a computer lab, but the hardware seemed far too outdated for the time that the school closed. These macs were actually equipped with 5 inch floppy disc drives.

Computer Room

More to come, of course. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Tags: abandoned, decayed, exploration, Gary, Indiana, Photography, photos

Playing Catch-Up – Gary Exploration Part 1

May 11

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Industrial, Residential | No Comments

I haven’t posted in months due to extreme lazification. That ends now (hopefully). I’m going to start a weekly (hopefully daily) attempt to catch up to exactly where I am now as it comes to exploration and photos that I’ve taken for work.

It begins with a trip to Gary I took nearly five months ago, December 2008.

Cold day of course, but most of the buildings that we visited were completely enclosed, shielding us at least partially from the wind outside.

We started with the old standby, the factory. Since it was Mid-Winter, the piles of clothes usually sitting moist and moldy were rigid and frozen completely solid. The light beamed in through the window and reflected off of the shiny piles.

Frozen Piles of Clothes lay on the floor of the factory

Water dripping from the ceiling of the building was creating icicles down the massive warehouse ceiling. The streams of ice were pristine, lined up perfectly along the edge where each piece of roof met.

Ice hangs from the girders.

They continue all the way down the length of the huge building.

Even after decades of abandonment, pieces of the building’s history still stick around. It’s weird really, knowing how many people have been here before me considering how untouched the building and its contents are.

A packing sticker sits still coiled up perfectly after years of disuse

Even after many times visiting this place, I always find things that are new to me.

Inexplicable Spraypaint near a door.

A wall covered in what looks like soot.

After leaving the bolt factory, we swung by a building that we had always seen from the road, but never attempted to enter. The inside of the building was unremarkable compared to the interesting architecture on the outside, although we did run into a few surprises.

Although the photo might not be remarkable, those stairs definitely are.

Apparently, Efraim liked pastel colors a lot.

Disco inferno?

Stay tuned for the next half of the day which includes an apartment building that is practically falling apart and a recently (then, at least) closed high school. Hopefully, I’ll get around to it tomorrow.

Tags: abandoned, apartments, decay, exploration, factory, Gary, Indiana, Photography

Tim and Eric Awesome Tour Chicago 2009, Great job!

Jan 26

Posted by Kyle in Entertainment, Photography, Photojournalism, Television | 4 Comments

Insane absurdist skit comedians Tim and Eric as well as many of their friends performed to a sold out crowd in Chicago recently and, lucky me, I was able to take photos of it.

First, a little bit of explanation to those who have no idea who the guys are, they’re the creators of possibly the most insane show on television today. The show is filled with jabs at bad public broadcasting, karaoke hits, guest stars out the ears, and just about anything that’d make someone unacquainted to the show confused and possibly uncomfortable. I’ll put it this way: a small, animated. screaming baby with an overly hairy face named “Chippy” is a common occurrence in between skits on the program. It’s that weird.

The question is, does the show translate well to the stage? The answer – yes. Freaking absolutely.

The night started as any show night does. Waiting in line. It was cold. By cold I mean mind numbingly cold. The kind of cold that saps every bit of feeling from your extremities. Completely ignorant of that fact, hundreds were already lined up for the sold-out show over an hour before the doors were even planned to open. Finally, after a long wait, the queue was checked for camera equipment and let through to wait in front of the stage, enjoying some ambient Tim and Eric music in the meantime.

After a short wait, DJ Douggpound, a friend of Tim and Eric as well as the guy responsible for the theme song for the show as well as a lot of music featured in the show, came out on stage and worked the crowd.

Dj Douggpound works the crowd.

The main event began. A melodic techno-tune fills the air involving the word “diarrhea”, and finally, Tim and Eric burst onto stage in their patented skin-tight costumes. Yellow this time around. The place went wild.

Tim and Eric dance for the crowd

Following the introduction, the show exploded into a menagerie of skits and video interludes reminiscent of the television program that we had all come to love. It included throwbacks to Awesome Show as well as completely original material that hadn’t been seen before (for instance, Tim and Eric tried to sell the audience a hot tub in an effort to give us the special “Tim and Eric TOUCH”). Guest appearances were abound.

James Quall - Dun dun dun dun dun dun.

The puppet is looking at me....

Sire Sings "Sexual Romance"

Also, a surprise visit from John C. Reilly as the much-loved character Dr. Steve Brule. Unfortunately, I don’t have the permission to post the photos that I took of him, so maybe another time.

To finish up, I’m going to dump a large bunch of the rest of my photos. I’m no writer, so I can’t really say much more past the fact that the show was excellent and I recommend it to literally everyone who is a fan of the duo go see it. Even if you’re not a fan and want to experience something like nothing you’ve experienced before, go see it.

Beaver Boys

Beaver Boy Eric

Spaghett Sings!

Spaghett tosses petals to the crowd

David Liebe Hart gets into it

Eric in all of his Magnificence

Tim and Eric Ta Ta Ta Touch

Eric Explosion!

Technorati Tags: Tim+and+Eric+Awesome+Show, Tim+and+Eric, show, tour, photography, David+Liebe+hart, James+Quall, sexual+romance, Beaver+Boys, Adult+Swim, , Tim+Heidecker, Eric+Wareheim, shows, hilarious, humor, television, Chicago, Vic, review, photography

Tags: Adult Swim, review, show, Tim and Eric, TV

Double Silo Quickie

Jan 20

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Industrial, Photography | No Comments

I hit two silos a while back, figured I’d put them both together. The first was an old grain silo. I have no history on the actual building, but it looks to have been active before the 60’s and maybe even as far back as the 30’s. The inside was almost too dark to take photos:

We climbed up the hulking structure, crossing frighteningly decayed cement walkways to get to another section where we could climb to the top. I took a quick photo of some of the coolest industrial equipment I’d ever seen:

The relative darkness of the inside compared to the bright winter day made it difficult to take many photos. I snapped one more shot before leaving that I really ended up liking. It turned out looking like it was processed, but this went straight from my camera to my computer with only a little leveling, temperature correction, and sharpening in between:

The second silo, oddly, looks like a gigantic castle. We didn’t know exactly where it was, but we followed it’s hulking presence on the horizon until we finally were able to park across the street and wander to it from there. We walked along some tracks until we were right next to the structure.

The inside of the first part of the silo was dark and full of dirt. Long rains had obviously washed in every surrounding bit of soil, which cascaded in through the windows. Small holes in the concrete let the light in. Unfortunately, there was no way to the higher floors as time had taken its toll on the steel ladders, which were either sprawled on the floor or barely intact.

As we walked from the first section the second, I took a photo. The wind between them was unbelievable.

There was very little in the second area past the same dirt and holes in the first. Jordan pointed this out to me and I thought it was pretty hilarious.

Tags: abandoned, cement, concrete, decayed, exploration, Photography, photos, silos, urban

Chicago Hospital Complex Exploration pt. 2

Jan 8

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Art, Hospitals, Photography | 21 Comments

We started the day with plans to explore two abandoned hospitals in the area. The hospital has been a historic point of Chicago since it was built and even had a popular TV sitcom based on it. The hallways were gigantic, but also very empty. Being a county hospital, the city had pinched every penny from the closure that they could.

There was almost nothing left but the structure of this building. Rooms stood completely empty with only a scrap or two of metal or a radiator against the wall.:

Making our way up to the top floor, we could see the Chicago skyline outside of the window. I wound my way through a small hallway to find an oddly placed auditorium that was probably used for the observation of surgeries at one point. The floor of the auditorium where the instructor once stood was now completely filled with what seemed to be heating equipment. A hulking wall of aluminum blocked us from going any further down the stairs.

The hallways were as gutted as the actual rooms. I have no idea why, but dirt was covering the ground of this 7th floor hallway.

We exited the first of our destinations and made our way to the second. This hospital, midway between the point where a building is closed and the point where demolition work starts, was much more interesting. It was full of leftover equipment, records, x-rays, film – you name it. Unfortunately, we were running low on daylight so we were forced to rush through.

The hospital felt as if everyone had just gotten up and left. Not a single room in the building that we were able to explore was completely empty. Chairs, piles of records, even medical equipment was just left to rot.

The furniture in the building was dated. Seems the last time that they actually refurnished the place was in the seventies, although I’m pretty sure it closed much more recently.

The halls were dark, full of furniture and debris. Peeling paint coats floors that have paint, other halls are lined with tile that has not yet fallen off.

Meet the most frightening CPR dummy that you’ll ever see.

One of the most surprising and incredible things that has ever happened to me while exploring suddenly happened. We were wandering around looking for a way to make it to the basement and something insane happened. We were in a dark stairwell. Dirty floors, peeling paint everywhere, no lights, darkness – suddenly, we opened a door and found ourself in one of the most pristine abandoned buildings that we had ever been in. It felt surreal, almost dreamlike. The colors on the walls were the same as they were when the building closed, the floors almost looked waxed. It was crazy. We were in a hurry (many windows, well lit), so I couldn’t get a great photo.

More to come of course.

Tags: abandoned, Chicago, exploration, hospital, Photography

Chicago Hospital Complex Exploration

Jan 7

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Art, Hospitals, Photography | 1 Comment

Ok I’m back after a few weeks of slacking for some more uploady goodness.
First off, I returned to the hospital complex that I went to last time. We explored a few different buildings, although I didn’t get photos in many of them because it was so dark.

The nurse’s residency was one of the places that we hit. The bottom floor actually had a boarded up ballroom with wood floors, chandeliers, a fireplace – the works. There was even wood left in the fireplace from the last time that they had extinguished the flame before they abandoned the building. We walked up a few floors to find room after room.

Colorful rooms, they were painted with almost childlike colors contrasting with the dull decay of the hallway.

One of the rooms was inhabited by a particularly successful bum.

We wandered into an animal testing facility. Jordan was a bad monkey.

In the same area, they were storing all sorts of medical equipment:

Tags: abandoned, complex, hospital, Photography

My Tamron Lens Broke!

Dec 20

Posted by Kyle in Photography, Rant | 1 Comment

My Tamron 17-35 recently screwed up majorly. I have no idea what went on inside, but I went out on a full day (which seemed to be going perfectly), framed up a shot, hit the focus button – it would NOT focus. For some reason the area that the focus ring was supposed to be at was PAST infinity. I took a closer look, and my aperture ring was off-track.

So, doing what any insane photographer that wants his lens to work would do, I opened the lens up, thinking that the worst case scenario would leave me $300 down and since my job involves photography, that wouldn’t be too bad.

Turns out, for some reason, the track that my aperture ring sits on was cracked and the ball bearing had become lodged into some evil area. No idea how this happened, since I have it tacked at 22 and let the camera control the f-stop.

So, I had to choose whether I should glue it, or discard the cracked fragment. I just tossed it out. Unfortunately, in the process of getting everything to work, the tiny, tiny ball bearing slipped out of my grip and flew to the floor. Not even a strong magnet could find it.

So, now I had no way to lock my aperture ring in place. It sucked, but I could live since I just keep it tacked stuck to 22. I replaced everything, closed it up, put the screws in, and fastened the aperture ring to 22 with some electrical tape (it has a tiny spring mechanism, so without the ball bearing, it doesn’t stick).

Works fine now, but I figured I’d share my pain.

Tags: Photography

Why Lomography Bothers Me

Dec 17

Posted by Kyle in Photography, Rant | 3 Comments

lomo1 I couldn’t have said this better myself:

“…the basic Lomographic principles of “talent not required” and “it’s art because I say it is” has developed a cult following amongst people who would otherwise be forced to read books and improve their mediocre photography, but who find acceptance of their talentless shite amongst others who got suckered into the same boat. They use “technological throw-backs” because it requires more effort to take a truly horrendous photograph with a modern autofocus, autoexposure camera.”

What is with the current trend of “no-skill-required” photography? I’m all for experimentation. Lomo a bit, pinhole a bit, use a Brownie for a few minutes, shoot some Polaroids – but for god’s sake don’t make technically inferior photography with no composition or skill in mind your main forte.

Now, I have nothing against Lomo in general or even people who use it to take a break from their normal photography and mess around a bit, but those who think of Lomography as “a way of life” need to get a real camera and learn to take photos or shut up. While the rest of the members of their lomograpic society might love seeing crappy, blurry, badly composed photos of the top of your head, your plastic camera hasn’t suddenly transformed you into some master photographer.

I’m inherently biased, being a photographer myself and having a lot of really great photographer friends, but when a bunch of vintage hipsters with no compositional intelligence in mind start getting thousands of comments on a site specifically for photographers as opposed to my Flickr contacts, who know what they’re doing and take beautiful photos, are mainly ignored, I start getting angry.

Yes, any random idiot can make an “interesting” photo with a lomo. The colors have that “wow” effect and the vignette and abberations might make for an interesting photo, but why are we putting so much of an emphasis on the medium in which we communicate our photography and so little on the actual content? It’s like praising someone who just picked up a vintage guitar and started strumming because the sound is “warm and inviting”, but not critiquing the fact that he can’t play for crap.

Good on the marketing department though, for convincing a bunch of clueless “artsy” types that a toy camera is worth $300 just because the photos that come out are oversaturated, vignetted, and badly focused.

If you’re thinking of buying a Lomo – please, please reconsider. Pick up a used film SLR from ebay for less than half the price and pick up a prime lens with the other half. Experimenting with composition and subject is 80% of the fun of photography – you’re skipping most of that when you pick up a lomo.

As always, comments of all sorts are welcomed and accepted. If you love Lomo, state your position, if you hate it, do the same.

Tags: cameras, hardware, lomography, marketing, Photography, plastic

Indiana Exploration

Nov 9

Posted by Kyle in Abandonments, Art, Other, Photography | 2 Comments

Exploration Catch-Up first post:
First off, an abandoned hotel.

Second, we hit a schoolhouse in the area. Built in 1922, it has been shut down since somewhere around 1960.

This hallway is actually in the basement. Originally, it was made of poured concrete and could withstand the blast of an atomic bomb.

Some of the cool paintings we found in the building:

For some reason, a single chair and desk were all that was left in this room. The floor was drooping pretty badly, so I didn’t spend too much time tromping around up there. There was a hole in the ground that led to a classroom below:

There were a lot of weird goth things painted around the building:

One last photo before we left the school – Jordan taking a shot in the stairwell:

Technorati Tags: Indiana,school,hotel,ancient,abandoned,urban exploration,decay,building,architecture,paint

Tags: abandoned, decay, exploration, hotel, Indiana, Photography, school, urban

Obama’s Chicago Election Night Rally

Nov 6

Posted by Kyle in Photography, Photojournalism | No Comments

Here comes a big set. It was an absolutely electric night. People of all types, of course, but the mood was euphoric.

Keep in mind the lighting while viewing these photos. I had the ISO cranked up to 3200 or 6400 and the temperature of the light changed so often I’d have a batch of blue photos followed by a batch of yellow photos. Either way, I’m happy with the results. Most of my photos were taken with my 50mm 1.8 prime lens, the rest were with an 18-50 and 70-200 2.8 if you’re interested in technical details.

Almost immediately after getting off of the train, we were bombarded by various people selling all sorts of Obama merchandise. From shirts, to mugs, to hats, to posters, to freaking paper fans. No idea who would be interested in a paper fan in 50 degree F weather, but whatever. This particular guy was standing on a street corner selling Obama/Biden posters.

As we got closer to the fairgrounds, signs started popping up.

We were corralled into lines – sent through various checkpoints along the way to make the wait seem less. It was surprisingly streamline considering that every person entering the event was forced to open all bags and remove all metal objects before making their way through an array of metal detectors.

We made our way in, finally. It seemed almost staged. The entrance was on a raised area of the field overlooking the whole place. A sea of people stood before us, flags waving in the distance and hands raised. It was ridiculous.

The media was there, of course. This woman is apparently from CBS. The price of media passes were insane ($900+ per pass), so unfortunately only the bigwigs had access to the cordoned off areas.

Suddenly, an incredibly early win was announced. The crowd erupted in celebration. It was deafening. I actually forgot to start taking photos I was so swept up in it. Finally, I got my act together.

People were taking photos like mad, of course.

I moved over to the other side of the fence (the non-ticketed area) people were just as excited over there ,but this kid just looked tired.

The crowds were crazy on the way out, but oddly controlled. We all walked happily out there with literally no problems. People were happy, shouting Obama, dancing, playing music, waving flags. All down usually packed-with-cars Chicago streets.

More at my Flickr page: Obama Set at Flickr

Technorati Tags: Obama,politics,election,president,Grant Park,Chicago,rally,photojournalism

Tags: Obama, Photography, Photojournalism