“View South-West along 2nd Ave. from E. 121st St. Harlem, NY 1988”
by: Camilo Jose Vergara

This has to be the most in-depth photo project I am aware of by a single photographer. With “Invisible Cities,” Camilo Jose Vergara documented Harlem, New York, Camden, New Jersey and more recently Richmond, Virginia returning often to take the same photo each time.  This project, spanning over 30 years, is simply mind blowing. Seeing these urban landscapes changing is a gift to the cities and to the history books.

Check out the entire 3 city project at Invisible Cities.

I’d love to see someone like Google Earth take on a project like this on a larger scale, it would lose the intimacy of Vergara’s photos, but would be interesting nonetheless.

Self Portrait – Vivian Maier

Around late 2008, John Maloof, a Chicago photographer purchased a lot of 20-30 thousand negatives, including some 1000 undeveloped rolls of film, from a small auction house in Chicago.  The photos were taken by French-born street photographer Vivian Maier. Little is known about Vivian, but John has managed to uncover a few facts about her.

John was able to find someone at the famous Chicago camera store, Central Camera, who remembered Vivian and then was also able to contact a family she worked for as a nanny during the 1950s and early 1960s. Vivian was born in France and moved to New York in the early 1930s, where she worked in a sweatshop when she was 11 or 12 years old.

Most of Vivian’s photos were taken in and around Chicago and give a black and white view of life in a post-war urban environment.

John Maloof found Vivian’s name on an envelope of negatives and decided to Google her name.  Sadly, the only result was her obituary, posted a few days prior.  It’s a shame that Vivian never shared her work during her lifetime, but luckily John is processing and posting her work on his blog. View Vivian Maier’s work at: Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work.

I had a lot of fun working with Ryan Budds for my latest shoot.  Based on a closing-joke of Ryan’s, he decided to name his upcoming DVD “No Wrong Way.”  The hardest part about this shoot was finding a Wrong Way sign.  In a city like Chicago, you’d expect to see these everywhere, but besides on highway off-ramps, this is the only one we could find!

Check out Ryan’s website and buy his new DVD when it comes out!