Matthew Nighswander

Chicagoland
Photography, Graduate

Project Summary: It is often said that Chicago is a city of neighborhoods. While true in its fashion, the statement ignores the many spaces in Chicago (and any other modern American city) that don't seem to be contained by the term "neighborhood" — spaces that have little to do with our romantic notions of the city. The images in Chicagoland explore this anonymous gray zone, the non-descript middle ground often passed through on the way to somewhere else.  These are the places where the transformative powers of photography can have the greatest effect — where the photographic image can create a sense of drama and psychological tension that may not have been present in the original scene.