These fortunes are whack.

Anthony Munoz, an advertising art director and newly minted proud father to son Cedar, here in China (town) for a occasional Chicago Reader feature called What Are You Wearing? (WAYW?) When I first got an assignment 3 years ago to shoot for this section, I was not entirely interested. Fashion was not my thing. Now after having done a few dozen WAYW? assignments thus far, street fashion has proven to be a pretty stimulating creative launching point for a lot of pictures I absolutely love.

Collaboraction does Siddhartha

My friends at Collaboraction theater company are again attempting to stage a difficult production in a challenging environment, replete with too many liquored-up folks and too few electrical outlets. On October 3, they will be launching a 2 week production of the story of
Siddhartha at a very dope new club called Lumen in Chicago. I shot a press photo last night on the banks of the quite polluted, yet beautiful Chicago River. Jumping fish and scurrying rabbits added to the sensation that we were no longer in Kansas. The doctor says the eye irritation should subside soon.

The Chicago Reader: A fine Georgia peach.

By the end of this month, the Chicago Reader will no longer be the ol' Reader.
It will be stewarded from south of the Mason Dixon line in Atlanta, and take on a new look and feel. But not so fast! Before most of them depart holding pink, the editorial and art staff have knocked another beautiful issue out of the the park beside their offices at 11 E. Illinois St.

Since 1994 I've been fortunate to have worked with the amazingly flexible art and editorial staff. I'm fortunate because they always let me shoot how I wanted, printed it, and so I grew as a photographer.













For the September 14 fashion issue, I photographed 12 amazing people who dressed-up in other peoples clothes and played with me a while on set. The issue looks quite handsome, so do pick one up and save it in an archival Ziploc bag to show your grand kids what people looked like in the 20 ten's.

Destructor of Soil visits The Dark Slide

My good friend Jason left his young family in The City of Lights to come to Chicago Saturday night to catch The Black Angels play at Schubas Tavern. A very heavy show with tons of thumping drums.
We got up early Sunday morning to go take pictures for our blog pages in my new neighborhood of Little Village.

View from my front balcony overlooking my neighborhood.

Would someone buy the building behind me and do something with it?

"/Everything is there when you're living in the city/"

Jay gets gross.

The Museum of objects left on the Sidewalk

We all know someone like this.

Real Life

What do I, Paris Hilton, Ron Jeremy, Flava Flav and Heidi Klum have in common?
Stay tuned and find out.

Never Bored

If you have ever believed that summer in Chicago is better than any city in the USA, U-S-A, I would agree. here are two divergent but memorable things I did this weekend to amuse myself.

Tonight I basked in the sunset under the Frank Gehry at Millennium Park and saw the phenomenal Flamenco guitar virtuoso, Gerardo Nunez play with sitar, bass, piano and hot, hot Flamenco dancers in a comfortably packed Pritzker Pavillion. Yesterday was a dirtier day. I took a 20 mile bike ride to Evanston and back again. I then drank with some amigos 'til damn near dawn. But before I got riding, I made sure to check in with some dirty friends, Mud Queens of Chicago .
They threw down on the hard street of the Palmer St Block Party. Accompanied by the punk band, Power Junkie they took on each other and frequently took off each others tops (and bottoms) until a winner emerged.




I got lucky to not have gotten my new little camera muddy... until the end, when all the girls rushed the crowd flinging mud, pressing their bodies all over anyone stupid enough not to flee. When the screaming stopped, I pulled my camera out from under the protection of my armpit and regretted to find my muddy finger pressed against the lens.

Language skills

Photo and book recommendation by Lindsey Hedge