Anyone willing to be my guide?

[adham]

Originally Posted by chuliet

I've already sent them a message and it turns out that they actually work with my school, so who knows! Thanks for the tip!


Well, don't assume everyone just smokes weed all day. And it doesn't work that way at all, just to be clear. It may be legal here, but that doesn't mean that it's all fun and games. And I was just asking, because there are still good people out there. Thanks for your concern though .


I have not! Thanks for the tip, I'll have a look then!


Yep! My school does this a lot, actually. The next trip will be to Iceland! I've written it down, if I have time left, I might just do that. Thanks a lot!

The U.S is big and there are plenty of crazy people - be careful !!!

[pete6032]

It would be especially helpful to find someone to go with when (if) you go into some of the rougher neighborhoods. Much of Chicago is very nice but if you really want to capture the full range of culture then you will have to explore the city's past to understand. What were the impacts of deindustrialization? What were the human impacts, how can those impacts still be felt today? What were the physical impacts (all the abandoned buildings and depressed neighborhoods), and how can you capture this in a photograph.

I would do some reading up on the city and then make a list of neighborhoods to visit, and see if you can get a couple of trusted people to go with you if you go into the more depressed areas. Not because they're super dangerous, but it's just a good idea if you're not from here and you're carrying several hundred dollars of camera equipment and don't know your way around.

If you have any particular questions about neighborhoods you can ask here and people will give you advice.

[NARFALICIOUS]

I would do help, but I'm not in Chicago right now.

Hopefully you get a real Chicagoan so the Amsterdam-ians?? get a realistic view of the city.

[jman07]

Are you cute? LOL. People aren't quite as trustworthy in chicago.

[Attrill]

What sort of things do you like to photograph? I think that will have a huge impact on what you're looking for. Chicago pretty much has everything - great architecture, parks, industry, street life, whatever. I first visited Chicago as a photography student in the 80's and ended up spending most of my time photographing the Kennedy Expressway and how it had cut neighborhoods in half.

To get an idea of the "essence and culture of Chicago" you can start with the history of Chicago. Chicago: A Biography is an excellent book that covers the history of the city from a lot of different angles. This is a good site to check out as well. You don't need to be exhaustive with either source, just browse either to find some things that look interesting to you. For information on more current issues you can check out traditional media sources, as well as DNAInfo, Reddit, and Everyblock.

I doubt I'd have any time to be a guide, but if you can narrow down what you're interested in I'm sure I can point you towards some interesting things.

[Lollapalooza773]

Cool! Start with downtown. Went to downtown 4 days ago and I've seen a lot of photo art students taking pics of skyscrapers, lake fronts and all.

Also very easy to make friends here especially if you smoke pot and from a different country.

[pete6032]

Originally Posted by jman07

Are you cute? LOL. People aren't quite as trustworthy in chicago.

Don't be a creeper.