Image Correspondence #5

This week’s image correspondence is for episode #86, Reversal of Fortune.

Photo credit: Kate Joyce “Morning Axis, Chicago, 2008”

No matter where I am in Chicago, the city’s skyline is like an “X” on a map marking the epicenter of an epic (and expensive) engineering feat of the 19th century and an overburdened aquatic infrastructure (as we learn in Reversal of Fortune thanks to reporter Dan Weissmann and journalist Richard Cahan).

I made this photograph of the North Branch of the Chicago River from the Diversey Street bridge shortly after moving to Chicago in 2008. As I understand it, the North Branch was less affected by the reversal of the river flow than the Main Stem and South Branch, but the near stillness and murky quiet in this photograph seem to foreshadow the delicate balance and dependency of a city on its waterways.

Special thanks to Orla O’Sullivan for her help researching and writing about this week’s image correspondence.

Kate Joyce is a Chicago based artist, architectural photographer, and the first image correspondent for 99% Invisible. Every two weeks, Joyce will release new and original work for specific episodes. She’ll also comb through her archive to find previously made photographs that are already in thematic conversation with current and past episodes. “I’m curious to see how audio will shape image and image will shape audio and what that will mean to telling stories about design over time,” Joyce says.

Now You See It is a project of 99% Invisible. Our intent is to create a public dialogue by offering our listeners a new way to interact with our show, as well as their own immediate environment. The project includes the Image Correspondent Residency and ongoing photo assignments for listeners. We want to get people out in the world engaging with our program, the built environment and photography. The images will have their own editorial arc, playing on themes that surface in our shows and leading us to new shows. This project came to us from the listeners and is a natural extension of our mission at 99% Invisible. It’s the next step in turning 99% Invisible from a radio show into a lens for viewing the world. Our first assignment will be posted soon, so stay tuned.