This week’s top photo comes from visual journalist Candace Dane Chambers.
What makes this photo important?
The Obama Presidential Center has been a much-discussed construction project in Chicago for the better part of a decade. It’s finally taking shape, and I was able to get an early glimpse at its progress alongside architecture critic Lee Bey. The centerpiece of the 20-acre campus is the museum building with a distinct concrete and granite exterior. Many feel the style is incongruent with the surrounding Jackson Park neighborhood, and our reporting on an exclusive site tour, led by co-lead architect Billie Tsien, offers some insight to the design rationale.
How I got this picture
The three-hour tour covered multiple portions of the campus, but our access — and my image making — was restricted. The 225-foot museum tower was a challenge to photograph in its entirety while keeping up with the tour and simultaneously recording video footage. After capturing a few obligatory wide shots, I decided to lean into studying the interplay of structure and silhouette created by the hot sun of the day. Rather than trying to expose the whole building evenly, I zoomed into a high point on the building where the sun was particularly reflective and dropped my exposure to exaggerate the shadow on the dark side.
Technical details:
- Equipment: Canon EOS R5 with an RF 28-70mm f/2 L USM lens
- Focal length: 51mm
- Aperture: f/4.5
- Exposure: 1/6400
- ISO: 100
27 more powerful photos from the Sun-Times photo staff:
Deangelo Tassin, 6, plays with a leaf near the memorial for Paul Hardwick, a Black waiter at the Palmer House Hotel who was fatally shot while being chased by a mob of white men, during a walking tour organized by the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 Commemoration Project in the Loop on Nov. 8. The memorials were placed in different areas in the Loop to mark the approximate location where people were killed during the riots. The riots began after police failed to arrest a white man, who threw a stone at Eugene Williams, a Black kid, when he was swimming in Lake Michigan and led to his drowning.
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times
A resident yells at U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino and federal immigration enforcement agents during a stop near Fulton Avenue and Catalpa Street in Waukegan as Bovino leads a caravan, making several stops to question residents on their immigration status, in Waukegan and neighboring northern suburbs on Nov. 7.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino stops near Fulton Avenue and Catalpa Street in Waukegan while leading a caravan of federal immigration enforcement agents, making several stops to question residents on their immigration status, in Waukegan and neighboring northern suburbs on Nov. 7.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
A driver with children in the back seat react to a federal immigration enforcement in Park City while U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino leads a caravan, making several stops to question residents on their immigration status, in Waukegan and neighboring northern suburbs, on Nov. 7.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Patty García gets emotional as she hugs her sister after a news conference at Food Market La Chiquita in Cicero to announce her candidacy for the 4th District congressional race on Nov. 12. U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia announced earlier this month that he would not seek reelection and endorsed his chief of staff, Patty Garcia, as his successor.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Chicago rapper Adamn Killa is handcuffed while attempting to film a TikTok at East Randolph Street and North Michigan Avenue downtown on Nov. 10. Killa has recently gone viral for videos of him approaching police, ICE and National Guard members and saying “arrest me daddy.”
Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times