Along The Divide
Photographs Of The Dan Ryan Expressway
Wolke, Jay (PHT)
Pacyga, Dominic A. (CON)
Hardcover
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BOOK SYNOPSIS
Cutting across Chicagos South Side in a broad swath of concrete, steel, and overpasses, the Dan Ryan Expressway is one of Americas busiest, and perhaps most chaotic highways. Yet underneath the cacophony of its ten lanes lies an intriguing world of urban ecology and human networks. In The Dan Ryan Expressway, artist and photographer Jay Wolke unearths an ecosystem unto itself that weaves human and industrial elements into an essential feature of Chicagos identity.Between 1981 and 1985, Wolke shot thousands of photographs on and along the Dan Ryan during the day and night, traveling up and down the expressway in an effort to accurately capture it. In the twenty years since the photographs were taken, Wolke has organized his pictures into a complex and fascinating portrait of this iconic highway, which he characterizes as an arterial organism with its own cycles and flows, causes and effects. The book is a dynamic narrative that explores the Dan Ryans enormous influence over the people who drive on it, the neighborhoods lined alongside it, and the industrial environs it weaves through.As Chicago transportation officials prepare to launch a massive renovation of the Dan Ryan Expressway, Wolke here presents a historical chronicle of the development of the Dan Ryan and its rapid integration into Chicagos urban life. His photographs create an arresting visual representation of the expressway that provides an important window into the structure of Chicagos urban landscape and culture. The Dan Ryan Expressway ultimately examines where the highway fits within the trope of the American road and explores how it became a massive expression of the urban lexicon. As chilling as Blade Runnerunfortunately this is not a dytopian vision set in a distant, fictional futurethis is Chicago, and this is America now. The automobile has utterly changed the landscape and our livesJay Wolke has found a powerful way to record this historic transformation in this unique, important photographic achievement. Joel Sternfeld
AUTHOR BIO
Jay Wolke is professor and chair of the department of art and design at Columbia College Chicago, and the author of All Around the House: Photographs of American-Jewish Communal Life. Dominic A. Pacyga is a professor at Columbia College Chicago, and the author and editor of numerous books on Chicago's history, including Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago and Chicago, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Along the Divide: Photographing the Dan Ryan Expressway The Plates The Busiest, the Most Dangerous, the Dan Ryanby Dominic A. Pacyga List of Plates Acknowledgments About the Author and the Essayist
BOOK REVIEWS
"In this startling, strong, poignant book, the Dan Ryan is a metaphor for Chicago, a place where, every hour, thousands upon thousands gather, each in isolation. And, yet also, in the midst of a hard-to-take-in beauty."--Chicago Tribune
FOR RELATED BOOKS
Photography Books :: General Books
MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 1930066287
ISBN(13-digit): 9781930066281
Copyright: 2004
Dewey Decimal: 779.93881220977311
Library of Congress: oc2007107349
Book Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 88
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