Chicago in Photographs

Chicago in Photographs Chicago-based photographer, Richard Cleis (1965-2021)

Chicago - John Hancock Tower Framed by BrickFramed tightly by brick on either side, the steel lattice rises cleanly into...
06/08/2026

Chicago - John Hancock Tower Framed by Brick

Framed tightly by brick on either side, the steel lattice rises cleanly into the sky. The composition narrows the city into a single vertical gesture, where geometry and perspective take over and the street quietly disappears.

At center is the John Hancock Center, completed in 1969, its distinctive X-bracing exposed and unapologetic. The structure reads as both engineering and design—function made visible. The bracing pulls the eye upward, step by step, until the building resolves at its peak.

On the left, the sixteen-story Seneca Apartments (1926) and, on the right, the Raffaello Hotel (1926) act as visual bookends. Their masonry facades compress the space, amplifying the Hancock’s height and reinforcing its dominance within the frame.

What makes the photograph hold is alignment. Old and new, brick and steel, ornament and structure—all briefly agree on where the eye should go. Straight up.

Richard Cleis (1965 – 2021)

Chicago - Lions for the Fine Arts InstituteThe two bronze lions guarding the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago we...
06/04/2026

Chicago - Lions for the Fine Arts Institute

The two bronze lions guarding the entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago were unveiled in May 1894 and immediately recognized as extraordinary. According to the Chicago Tribune, they were the largest lions ever modeled in a standing posture. Created by sculptor Edward Kemeys and cast by the American Bronze Company, each sculpture weighs three tons, stands ten feet high, and stretches fifteen feet in length.

The lions were a gift from Mrs. Henry Field, who fulfilled the promise after her husband's death and also donated his extensive collection of modern French paintings to the institute. Kemeys described the pair as guardians: one lion calmly attentive, watching something in the distance; the other alert and agitated, braced to roar or spring. Together, they embody vigilance, strength, and restrained power.

When first installed, the sculptures were temporarily covered in canvas and hidden from public view until the opening of the annual exhibition of the Artists Sketch Club. Even then, their impact was immediate, both as works of art and as symbolic sentinels marking the threshold between the city and the cultural space beyond.

More than a century later, the lions remain enduring icons of Chicago, their posture and presence unchanged, continuing to guard the institution they were designed to protect.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - Meet Me Under The Clock At Marshall Field'sAccording to legend, Marshall Field decided this corner needed a cl...
06/02/2026

Chicago - Meet Me Under The Clock At Marshall Field's

According to legend, Marshall Field decided this corner needed a clock after discovering handwritten notes wedged into the edges of the stores new plate-glass windows. Messages marking times and places for friends, family, and business associates to meet. Field believed a clock could serve as a proper rendezvous point for shoppers while gently reminding them of the passing time.

It didn't take long for the Chicago Tribune to report that women across the city were telling one another to "-meet me under the clock at Marshall Field's'. The phrase became part of Chicago's shared language almost overnight.

Designed by Pierce Anderson, who worked for the firm responsible for the building itself, each clock weighs 7 tons and is cast in bronze, suspended from richly ornamented ironwork. Originally black, the clocks gradually developed their now-distinctive green patina. They are impulse-operated from a master timepiece inside the store, checked twice daily against the Arlington time signal and automatically corrected each hour.

More than a clock, it became a promise, a place to wait, to reunite, and to be found in the heart of Chicago.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - State Street Theatre SignAngled upward, the sign asserts itself long before the building does. Letters stack v...
05/28/2026

Chicago - State Street Theatre Sign

Angled upward, the sign asserts itself long before the building does. Letters stack vertically, unapologetic and luminous, turning the street into a corridor of anticipation. Even in daylight, the sign carries the weight of night of marquees, crowds, and memory.

This is the iconic sign of the Chicago Theatre, a visual anchor on State Street since 1921. Shot from below, the composition exaggerates scale and confidence, allowing the sign to dominate the frame while the surrounding facades recede into supporting roles.

What draws me here isn't nostalgia, it's persistence. In a city that constantly reinvents itself, the sign remains both signal and promise. You don't need to know what is playing. The message is simpler than that: this is Chicago, and the show is still on.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - Rhapsody In BlueSome of my favorite commercials were the United Airlines spots from the early 1980s through mo...
05/28/2026

Chicago - Rhapsody In Blue

Some of my favorite commercials were the United Airlines spots from the early 1980s through more recent years, many of them set to “Rhapsody in Blue”—a piece by George Gershwin that has always been one of my favorites.

Standing beneath the Marina Towers, I looked up just as a jet passed perfectly between the two curving forms. With Gershwin playing in my headphones, Chicago beneath my feet, and a United aircraft overhead, the moment felt complete. Architecture, music, and motion briefly aligned—and the title revealed itself.

Richard Cleis (1965 – 2021)

Chicago - Pouring RainStanding at the corner of Washington and State Streets, caught in a downpour where the rain was co...
05/28/2026

Chicago - Pouring Rain

Standing at the corner of Washington and State Streets, caught in a downpour where the rain was coming in sideways. I’m not entirely sure that the umbrella helped much under those conditions.

What drew me in was the glow of the Marshall Field’s clock, steady and unmoved as the storm passed through. Watching pedestrians hurry along the sidewalk, I couldn’t help but wonder how many storms this clock has witnessed over its long lifetime; rain, snow, wind, and everything Chicago has thrown at it.

Some things endure, no matter the weather.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - Sullivan CenterThe entrance to the Sullivan Center rises with a sense of inevitability, ornament anchoring the...
05/26/2026

Chicago - Sullivan Center

The entrance to the Sullivan Center rises with a sense of inevitability, ornament anchoring the street while the building stretches upward into motion and sky. Photographed from below, the bronze-plated cast-iron framework becomes both threshold and declaration, its intricacy holding firm as the rest of the city blurs past.

Completed in 1898, the building was designed by Louis Sullivan, later giving rise to the name Sullivan Center. Originally built for the Schlesinger and Mayer Store, the location became the flagship for Carson Pirie Scott in 1904. Positioned at State and Madison—once known as the “Busiest Corner in the World”—the storefront was meant to command attention at street level, where commerce and architecture met directly.

The cast-iron entrance seen here has remained in its original form since 1899. Every curve, vine, and void was designed to be encountered up close, rewarding pause rather than speed. Seen today, the work reads as both functional and expressive—an example of how early skyscraper design embraced craft rather than hiding it.

What lingers is not nostalgia, but absence. The level of artisan detail feels increasingly rare in contemporary construction. The entrance stands as a reminder that the street once demanded beauty as much as height—and that architecture could afford both.

Richard Cleis (1965 – 2021)

Chicago - The SpearmanApproaching Chicago from the west along the Eisenhower Expressway, the city announces itself with ...
05/22/2026

Chicago - The Spearman

Approaching Chicago from the west along the Eisenhower Expressway, the city announces itself with scale and symbolism. At the corner of Congress Parkway and South Michigan Avenue stands The Spearman, one of a paired set of sculptures by Ivan Mestrovi, completed in 1928. Its counterpart, The Bowman, faces it just beyond the right edge of the frame. Together, they form a ceremonial threshold into the city.

The figure is frozen mid-motion, horse reared, body twisted set against the rigid grid of the city beyond. Behind it rises the south tower of the Congress Hotel, completed in 1902. Long known as a political hub, the hotel once carried the nickname Home of Presidents, having hosted generations of U.S. leaders passing through the city.

Chicago, however, rarely settles on a single claim. Just a few buildings south, the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel makes a similar case for Presidential history. The competition feels appropriate here. Permanence, ambition, and legacy overlap in this part of the city, where sculpture, architecture, and roadway converge.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - Sunrise Sunset Rays"In Chicago, there's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. ...
05/20/2026

Chicago - Sunrise Sunset Rays

"In Chicago, there's a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they're absolutely free. Don't miss so many of them."
Jo Walton

As the sun slips behind the skyline, light pours through the canyon of buildings, briefly transforming steel and glass into something warm and luminous. These moments are fleeting and easy to overlook, yet they arrive faithfully every day. A quiet reminders to pause, look up, and simply take it in.

Richard Cleis (1965 - 2021)

Chicago - DuSable Bridge Tender HouseIn view is one of the DuSable Bridge tender houses, framed against the Wrigley Buil...
05/19/2026

Chicago - DuSable Bridge Tender House

In view is one of the DuSable Bridge tender houses, framed against the Wrigley Building in the background. The early morning light created an unexpected visual X across the structure, formed entirely by light and shadow, which immediately caught my eye.

The tender houses were built in 1920 by architects Edward H. Bennett and Pihlfeldt & Young, as part of the Michigan Avenue Bridge—an essential element of the 1909 Plan of Chicago by Daniel Burnham and Bennett. The bridge played a crucial role in connecting the residential neighborhoods north of the river with the commercial districts to the south, while its double-decker design helped separate local and commercial traffic.

In October of 2010, the bridge was officially renamed the DuSable Bridge in honor of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, Chicago’s first permanent resident. Nearly a century later, the structure still stands as a quiet monument to planning, progress, and purpose.

Richard Cleis (1965–2021)

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