The Chicago Chop Suey Building Mystery
A few years back my daughter and I were driving up the coast to San Francisco. Along the way, we found ourselves on the streets of Guadalupe Ca, a small town about a hundred and fifty miles from Los Angeles. Driving around town we came upon this sweet little oddity of a place, the Chicago Chop Suey building. I loved it in an instant and we pulled over so I could shoot this picture. And then because I am who I am I tried to find out more about the place from the neighbors but…nothing. So this picture languished, having no purpose to call it to life but too sweet to delete.
We all make pictures like this, pictures made for no particular purpose except they call to you and you respond. In an Instagram world, the easy answer is to post it and move on but I am looking for something more. Not more from the picture but from myself. I think part of being a photographer is to think about the pictures you make, not just to make them. So I am.
It occurs to me this picture calls me because I am from Chicago. And it calls to me because Chop Suey was the Chinese food of my youth. And the thirties lettering style and the older architecture feed my nostalgia while the closed door and drawn shades speak of mystery. The signs on the windows say “Please do not lean your bicycles on the building. Thank you”, the one on the fence says “Please do not lean your bicycles on…
