If you are a Chicagoan from the mid-century era you may recollect that Lake Shore Drive now known as DuSable Lake Shore Drive had cones on the roadway to increase the lanes during rush hour. There would be four lanes for rush hour in either direction and two for non-rush hour traffic. As you can imagine the confusion caused many accidents. My good friend Margo was driving while I was the passenger in her Volkswagon Super Beetle with the top down. On the left you can see people in swimsuits on Fullerton Beach. Lake Point Towers is the left most building across from Navy Pier. The Ferris Wheel was yet to be built in 1995. Prominently in the center of the photo is the John Hancock Building that was finished in 1968 surrounded by the shorter buildings of East Lake Shore Drive and Michigan Avenue. Under construction on the right is the Standard Oil Building now known as the AON Building. The tree lined area on the right side obscures the Lincoln Park Zoo while a CTA Bus merges onto traffic at Fullerton advertising the first women's radio station called WSDM. The biggest observation that I can make is how sparse traffic was in the 1970s. Fewer cars, less traffic and very easy to get around. Today it is clogged by huge amounts of traffic and the lanes are strictly four in each direction.
Being that this is the very first role of film that I ever shot, you can see that there is a very basic use of photography. My sister Maria is in #10, followed by me number in #08, Maria again followed by our Mom who was resting on the back porch, a couple of my plexiglass projects from the foundation class at UIC, me again, the streets covered in snow, the Soul Train show that was photographed off the TV, a view down the hall of our apartment on South Saginaw in South Shore Chicago, the back porch view of the snow, my bedroom with a silk screen of Che Guevara, a still life, my bestie Margo at Rainbow Beach, Lake point Towers on LSD, the AON Building originally known as the Standard Oil Building that was under construction and one more view of LSD.