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The following series of eight photos represents for me a unique experience in street photography. They were taken in sequence, during a ten or fifteen minute period, along a short city block. It was in Chicago in 1983; I'd just enjoyed a delicious meal of crab cakes and was moving slowly. The images are, I think, each and every one, reasonably okay.
Part of my satisfaction stems from my fondness for rectangles as visual elements. The store fronts depicted in these shots are replete with rectangular patterns. There is a particular rectangle known as the "Golden Rectangle," characterized by its aspect ratio (length/width) of about 1.62. It is often cited for its influence in art and architecture, as in the Egyptian pyramids and the Greek Parthenon. And, it seems, in Chicago store fronts. During processing of these images I noticed that the dual windows fronting the Thai-Chinese restaurant (best seen in photo 8) exhibit the proportions of the golden rectangle! Years ago my wife had a ring made for me which feature the Golden Rectangle. I digress on this and other rectangular obsessions in my blog of this August 2010 issue. For any of you with intense rectangular fascinations, try a Google search of "Golden Rectangle." You'll be overwhelmed.