"It may be that the developers, residents, and corporate owners of the new American village have gotten exactly what they want. Like all such rare complete triumphs, the victors are left to consider not the limits of their effort but the quality of their original vision."―Bob Thall
Since 1971, Bob Thall has made photographs that examine and interpret Chicago's urban landscape. His highly praised 1994 book, The Perfect City, documented the sweeping changes in the character of the downtown area from 1971 to 1991. Now, continuing his extensive project to photograph the Chicago metropolitan area, Thall presents a complete picture of the nationally known area around Schaumburg and O'Hare International Airport―significant as perhaps the best example of a new type of American suburb, the "edge city."
In The New American Village, Thall captures four components of the new edge city―corporate, commercial, domestic, and environmental―in a way that no previous photographer has achieved. To find the stark but provocatively beautiful images that appear in the book, Thall spent years exploring the western and northwestern suburbs of Chicago, photographing remnants of open land and farm structures, the process of clearing and construction, corporate headquarters, townhouse developments, model homes, office parks, strip malls, and the many aspects of nature that remain, in one way or another, in these miniature cities.
Thall's photographs are not simply snapshots of raw visual facts but images full of meaning. Documenting these new American places, he draws attention to the choices being made when they are built and discovers some unexpected transformations. In an industrial park built where once there were only huge, flat fields of corn, Thall is surprised to find innumerable small lakes and ponds created by developers for flood control. While timing exposures at dusk, he recalls, geese flew so close overhead that he could feel the beat of their wings.
But along with such oddly pastoral scenes, Thall finds much that is emotionally chilling. His photographs show a landscape with no pedestrian life, no old trees, and little diversity in architecture or people. "Everything, for hundreds of square miles, looked much the same to me," he writes, "the cheap standardized construction, the ceaseless flow of cars, the acres of blacktop and concrete, and the unwalkable distances across open, flat land." Always thoughtful, often striking or strangely beautiful, Thall's remarkable images capture a vast suburban world where, in ever increasing numbers, Americans are choosing to spend their lives.

The New American Village (Creating the North American Landscape)

History

Thall, Bob

Americas

Johns Hopkins University Press

In 1996, photographer Bob Thall—walking to his car after completing some work in downtown Chicago—was stopped by something. "I noticed this strange view down an alley," he later wrote. "It wasn't the type of photograph I was doing that year, but the scene stopped me. I had one sheet of film left and thought, 'Oh, what the hell,' and took the picture."Thall didn't print that picture for over a year. He had just published the highly-praised The Perfect City, an investigation of the sweeping changes in downtown Chicago over a twenty-year period—and he was still working on The New American Village, a look at the new edge city around O'Hare Airport that stands in such contrast to the urbanity of downtown. That single alley photograph, however, would stay with him, and eventually it would inspire the project that led to this, his third book: City Spaces is an exploration of the terrain of Chicago's alleys, where Thall finds remnants of the old city that he, and many other Chicagoans, once found so compelling.What these photographs transcribe are deep urban slits, afterthoughts to the gleaming modernist fronts of buildings. As Thall writes, "Investigating these spaces reminded me of my earlier sense of the city as a mysterious landscape to explore. My history as a Chicagoan, my history as a photographer, the history of the city, and, in a small way, the history of photography—without any plan or anticipation, these photographs brought these histories together for me." City Spaces will be a welcome addition to those interested in fine art photography, architecture, Chicago, and the urban scene—and will reinforce Bob Thall's presence as a leading artist and spokesperson for the city he loves.

City Spaces: Photographs of Chicago Alleys (Center for American Places - Center Books on Chicago and Environs)

Arts & Photography

Photography & Video

Center for American Places

An iron-gray slate on a cold and blustery day, a respite from the summer heat, the engine of the city's notorious blizzards: Lake Michigan is an integral part of the landscape of Chicago. Bob Thall has been photographing the skyline and streets of Chicago for over thirty years, and here in At City's Edge he chronicles the twenty-five-mile shoreline where the asphalt meets the inland sea. Thall's stark yet rich images take viewers from the Evanston border on the North Shore down to 100th Street on the South Side, documenting the natural scenery, architectural structures, and people that populate the coastline. From the lakefront parks to summer beaches to the Air and Water Show, Chicago enfolds Lake Michigan into its urban character, but Thall's images make clear that the lake remains a dynamic and powerful force, with nature and civilization clashing at its rim. At City's Edge brings the lakefront to life in all its complexity, chronicling in its elegant visual sequence the sand-covered city beaches, the rock-studded shoreline, the running paths, and the buildings built along this unique intersection. Thall writes, "Since the age of five or six, I've spent much of my life at the beach, not only in the summer, but throughout the year. I can't imagine my life in this city without Lake Michigan nearby." At City's Edge redefines the shores of Lake Michigan as a vital element in the urban landscape of Chicago and reveals the complex forces that shape the lakefront as one of Chicago's most public communal spaces.

At City's Edge: Photographs of Chicago's Lakefront (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places)

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