At about 11:30 last night, upon awaking from a rather ill-advised 'nap' with a book on my chest and a cat on my feet and my glasses all askew, I decided that if I had slept the evening away without working on a task, I would spend the night doing one. I had already decided night photography sounded fun, and so I sat down to figuring out where in my neighborhood would be good places to look for photographs specific to night, or good night scenes. My list of places quickly turned into a map of my neighborhood, encompassing the area from Western to Clark between Lawrence and Irving Park. I sat down to make the map while waiting for the darkest of night.

Because I didn't want to wait until earth hour later in March, I did some complicated math that used latitude and longitude and the angle of the earth's axis.... and then I scrapped on that and searched on Google for "darkest of night" which only brought up song lyrics. Then I just geard up to go and left the house anyway, since it was already after 1:00 and that was dark enough for me.

I am no photographer by any stretch of the imagination, and took forever to figure out how to work the camera I was using. I took a LOT of pictures, many which did not turn out well at all. Also, I took so many I couldn't possibly post them all on here. I realized, too, that I took a lot of pictures of places - places I either had seen before but couldn't quite remember where, and so I marked them on my map, or places I never knew existed in my neighborhood like the Denk House German Cultural Center or the Native American Center. In reviewing my pictures I noticed an overabundance of churches and rabbits, so I tried to cut a lot of those out of this praxis, lest you think I'm somewhat obsessed. I guess I never really realized how many churches and temples and weird cults had places of worship in my community. I'm currently researching whether the high numbers of churches and rabbits are somehow related.



Two things I really wanted to get a picture of that I considered 'late night' specific were vandalism, and a creepy cab slowing down to follow me and honking to see if maybe I wanted a ride. Somehow, I come upon these things all the time but the one time I have a camera, I cannot find them. Other things I wanted to capture, like the El stops (that are currently open) at night, and some deserted streets, and that electronics equipment repair guy, I was able to photograph.

Exploring my neighborhood at night was... time consuming. I often have too large a view of what can be considered my neighborhood. I thought about riding my bike at the outset, but decided against it and I think that was the right decision. There are so many little things I would not have seen had I been going by too fast. I think they are the same sorts of things I also would overlook during the day, when mostly we go places with purpose.

The map of my neighborhood is now really full. I want to scan a copy of it but will probably have to go to a copy place after work, as it's kind of large, to figure that out and add it later. I now believe that nighttime is the best time to discover your own neighborhood.

Here's a breakdown of the general route(s) I took (syou can compare them to the map I drew when it is posted.)



The red lines mark the boundaries of my homemade map, as well as what I roughly consider my neighborhood. The pink lines outline Zatterberg proper, with the green arrow marking Zatterberg park itself. The blue line marks my path of exploration, outlined in detail below.

From my house on Hermitage, I went north to Montrose and East to Clark to hit my number one stop: 7-11 for supplies. On the way there I passed the Typewriter place and the electronics guy. I wasted a ridiculous amount of time trying to sneak a photo of him. I'm sure I looked very silly.

After 7-11 I went south on Clark by the cemetery, then turned west onto Berteau to head towards the Unicut building. I also wanted to capture this weird glass-roofed building I thought was on Ravenswood that I used to see on the El every day... but I think the only good view of the thing is from the El, as I couldn't even find it. After taking some pictures around the Unicut building and the Bearteau/Ravenswood intersection, I headed back east to Hermitage so I could walk North and visit the Zatterberg park - which gives my tiny neighborhood its name. At the park I took a small break to eat candy and gain energy, and to look for a pair of gloves, research the map, and find new batteries for the camera (something I had to do regrettebly often.)

Then I headed up Hermitage until I found the House of Sufism I had seen running, and place it on my map. It was almost all the way to Leland. I passed about 7 rabbits on the way. From Hermitage and Leland I went East on Leland to Ashland so I could photograph the giant church/mosque thing, but walking on Leland I noticed that glowing Mary statue in the dark, and found the secret garden area and the weird sign.

After crossing Ashland, I stopped by the track, then passed Stone Soup Cooperative House heading South on Ashland. When I got to Wilson I noticed the Truc Lam Buddhist Temple and remembered there was a cooperative apartment somewhere around Ashland/Wilson (I was wrong about that, or couldn't find it) that I wanted to put on the map. I walked west on Wilson turned south on Paulina and then turned west on Sunnyside, hoping to pass Klonders Corner (which I had missed before on my way north, because I though it was on Hermitage but it's on Ravenswood) on my way to find where the El curves around from north to west somewhere between Wilson and Leland.

I found that, and after a little creative meandering found myself walking under those tracks. I stayed under the tracks where I could, and walked more traditional residential routes otherwise, until I came up to Lincoln and then I headed North briefly to the square. At the top of the square, at Lawrence, I cut over to Western and walked south on Western, zig-zagging from one side of the street to another taking pictures. (I found Spyners, the secret lesbian bar but not that other second story no-name super secret lesbian bar that my friend Shira told me about.)

I cut east again on Wilson but accidentally turned on Oakley (which I didn't know existed momentarily between Wilson and Sunnyside) instead of Lincoln, and saw the back of the Old Town School of Folk Music on my way south to Wells park, to see the gazebo. The gazebo was dark; I cut across the park, avoiding the baseball fields, heading southeast, until I reached the corner of Lincoln, Montrose, and Leavitt. I noticed on my way that Wells park has horseshoe pits! I considered stopping at the Golden Angel, decided against it, and headed east on Montrose. At Damen I ventured briefly north to photograph the other Buddhist temple, but those didn't turn out. The Le Sabre was closed (I guess it's not a 24 hour restaurant anymore) so I continued home, east to Hermitage where I turned south again and came back to my apartment.


As soon as I can I will scan the map I made and attach it here.

(insert scanned map SOON)