Chicago Black & White · Chicago
The Water Tower
Michigan Avenue · Chicago
Photographed on a spring morning in 2026, this black-and-white portrait of the Chicago Water Tower concentrates on the texture and tonal detail of its limestone Gothic Revival facade. I waited for the Michigan Avenue crowd to thin, then made the photograph as a lone pedestrian moved into the frame, providing a quiet sense of scale.
Completed in 1869 and one of the best-known survivors of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the Water Tower has been part of Chicago's identity for generations. It has also been part of my own landscape for decades — from the fifteen years I practiced Optometry across Michigan Avenue to countless walks past it with my family.
