nvghn @noahvaughn - Tumblr Blog

Two photos from this morning (slowly easing back into light trespassing after not doing much in 2015.)

Chicago's Historic Churches are Worth Saving, Part 1: Preservationists Prepare for a Crisis

(Saving Chicago’s vacant and under-utilized church buildings is important, but I’m posting this link mainly because the article is illustrated with a few of my photos including this shot of St. Laurence, taken shortly before the building was demolished in 2014.)

#Chicago #photography #preservation

Malcolm X College, 1/23/16

#Chicago #2016 #Malcolm X College #Black Power

Saw this today. Really good.

#Milwaukee #Larry Sultan #Milwaukee Art Museum

Zombie ghoststore (now demolished), 2015

#Chicago #2015 #photography #Halloween

The Vintage Interiors of Ebony Magazine’s Historic Former Headquarters, a great selection of photos by Barbara Karant.

also: Lee Bey photographed and wrote about the Ebony/Jet building interior spaces back in 2013.

#Chicago #Ebony #Jet #architecture #photography #Barbabra Karant #Lee Bey

Ceiling, Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, 2015

#chicago #Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica #2015 #photography #architecture #church

Ceiling, St. Mary of Perpetual Help, 2013

(Finally getting around to editing photos I shot 2 years ago...)

#Chicago #church #photography #architecture #2013 #Saint Mary of Perpetual Help

Evergreen Park, 2015

Today: "...the first wrecking ball is scheduled to slam into The Plaza, the 63-year-old mall at 95th Street and Western Avenue. The Plaza, which opened as an outdoor mall, has historical significance because it was America's first suburban indoor mall when it was enclosed in the early 1960s. It had 120 stores and a food court at its peak during the 1960s and '70s. But it gradually fell on tough times and since 2013 has been all but vacant..." (source)

#Chicagoland #Evergreen Park #The Plaza #watertower #photography

5212 S. Ashland, 2010

The building is still there, but the slipcover and hand-painted “5212″ is not.

#chicago #2010 #photography #hand painted sign

hardcorearchitecture

noahvaughn

“Negative Element / The address given for their “Gone Fishing” cassette, in E. Peoria, IL 61611. Source: MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL, issue no. 12, March, 1984. Street view date: Aug., 2011. Note that this is the same address associated with the band Electric Cool-Aid.” (image and quote via the great hardcorearchitecture.tumblr.com, which “explores the relationship between the architecture of living spaces and the history of underground American hardcore bands in the 1980s.”)

The influential Chicago hardcore band Negative Element (”Anti-Pac Man” is probably their best known song) broke up in the early 80′s when two of their members, “Chopper” and Barry, moved to my hometown of East Peoria, IL (or more accurately, when their parents moved--the brothers were in still in high school and didn’t have much say in the matter, I suspect.) Their younger brother K wound up in my 7th grade homeroom, and we quickly became friends. I had never heard (and have barely heard of) punk rock before, and visiting K’s home (pictured above) for the first time was like visiting another planet. I wasn’t sure what to think about the skateboard ramp in the backyard or the basement rec room where his older brothers hung out, it’s walls covered with crude flyers promoting bands with strange names (”What’s a Naked Raygun?”) and cruder-looking xeroxed newsletters about punk culture (”‘Zines,” one of the brothers explained to me) littering the floor. Later that afternoon I saw a record album in K’s room, it’s cover art a stark black and white photo of a man with a shaved head punching a mirror. K put the record on his turntable, and that’s how I first heard Black Flag. After that, the world around me a looked a little different.

(note: Electric Cool-Aid, mentioned above, was an early incarnation of a band that eventually became HATE, Peoria’s most beloved/despised punk band. More info: chopperstepe.nyc/ecachips-patrolhate.html)

#East Peoria #Negative Element