It feels strange when people tell me the like my photos. It feels even stranger when people are interested in interviewing me about photography. This has happened twice in the past few months, 1 television interview and 1 blog interview. I’m not sure I came off that well in either one but at least it’s some good press.
A few weeks ago I was chosen as a Blog of the week on the Chicago’s Best Blogs blog on the Chicago Tribune. See that here:
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicagosbestblogs/2008/08/blogger_of_the_week_photoentro.html
A few months ago Mike Chu and I did an interview for the WCIU show 26 N. Halsted. See that here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoAn5ING_UQ
I love old photos, especially when I can relate to them in some way. I could spend hours looking at old photos of Chicago, Minneapolis, or even Arlington Heights, IL. So last night when one of my neighbors brought out an appraisal from 1980 with a bunch of photos of the building I live in, I wanted to see more. I had done some searches before but never really turned up many results for Arlington Heights. I then decided to check out http://www.digitalpast.org. I had visited the site a couple years ago after seeing something about it at the library or local cable channel. It didn’t have a lot of content on it at the time, but now there is a plethora of old photos. Below are 4 photos that I found of my apartment.
My apartment 1
The first photo was actually taken before my building was there. It would be on the far left of the photo.
My apartment 2
Here is the earliest photo I can find with my building in it. I live in the building that has the National Tea Co sign.
My apartment 3
Here is the street I live on, with my building on the left side. The diagonal street on the right no longer exists and the triangular building in the middle right is also gone. Both have now been replaced by an ugly building.
My apartment 4
The final photo is an aerial view. My building is near the top left. Again, the triangular building and the diagonal street in the middle are gone. The bottom right section of the diagonal street, Davis Street for those interested, remains. The top left section of Davis is gone as well. There is currently a strip mall type development there.
I think it’s time for a visit to the local historical society sometime soon.
