Zeca Bettax, 07 November 2011

You’d think that sooner or later, I’d get bored with such a simple camera…and you would be wrong…so very wrong. Actually, it’s quite fun trying to get good shots with a camera that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of all these sophisticated modern ones.

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Photo Information:

Camera: Zeca Bettax
Lens: Schneider-Kreuznach 105mm f/4.5 Radionar
Film: Fuji Neopan Acros 100 (120)

Photo 1
Location: Chicago, Illinois; Uptown Neighborhood

This building sits at the northeast corner of Clark & Montrose on the western side of the Uptown Neighborhood on Chicago’s north side. Uptown, for those of y’all who’ve never been there, is quite an eclectic neighborhood. The area where I live (Buena Park) is fairly quiet and uneventful – about the only issues I have is the distinct lack of local restaurant options; other parts of the neighborhood are more…colorful, to say the least. This particular intersection is really neither…it’s not “depressed”, but there isn’t much to recommend it, either. OTOH, there’s this magnificent building, with all its terra cotta splendor!

Photo 2:
Location: Chicago, Illinois; Andersonville Neighborhood

Just a few blocks north on Clark from the intersection in the previous shot is the Andersonville Neighborhood, which has and entirely different feel than Uptown; it’s full of unique shops and restaurants, and lots of quiet residential streets. This particular building is part of a strip that includes a few such shops and restaurants (locals will probably recognize it as the storefront just north of Edgewater Produce). As with the previous building, there’s quite a bit of amazing terra cotta detail – and that curved corner.

Photo 3:
Location: Chicago, Illinois; Chicago Loop

This is the Banker’s Building (completed in 1927 and designed by Burnham Bros.) on the southwest corner of Clark and Adams, pretty close to the center of the Loop, and just half a block east of the heart of the financial district on LaSalle Street. The building is quite prominently visible behind the USPS Loop Station when viewed from Federal Plaza (the black shape on the right of the photo is part of one of the two towers in Federal Center). Stylistically, the building is somewhere in between traditional and Art Deco (the latter being most noticeable at the main entrance to the building) – not surprising, given its date of completion.

Photo 4:
Location: Chicago, Illinois; Uptown Neighborhood

This building sits at the southwest corner of Broadway and Winona in the Uptown Neighborhood. While the upper floors follow a fairly typical pattern for corner buildings in the city (apart from the rather elaborate turret roof), the building is perhaps most notable for the horizontal extension to the south and the corresponding shift in materials and design – both of which are rather less typical. The upper floors (again, apart from the turret roof) follow a pretty standard style for turn-of-the-century (19C – 20C, mind you…not 20C – 21C) buildings; the lower floor is more Tudor Eclectic, and I have no idea how to classify the turret roof. Overall, quite an eclectic building – oh, and for further amusement, the building no longer houses a restaurant, despite the prominent sign advertising otherwise.

Photo 5:
Location: Chicago, Illinois; Lincoln Park

In this case, the building is literally in Lincoln Park – the park not the neighborhood. The building, as you can see from the sign on the front, is Cafe Brauer (completed in 1908 and designed by Perkins & Hamilton; formerly the South Pond Refectory). I know the photo is a bit washed-out, but it was necessary so that the terra cotta and brick details below the roof eave would be visible; stylistically, the building falls under the Prairie Style, a style common in the Midwest around the time the building was designed and built.

Enjoy.