One day in February, Joe Royer took some time off from his job as a part-time teacher at Saint Bruno’s to drive around the southwest side and take pictures. At 49th and the Stevenson, he caught an eerie glimpse of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. “Right as I see the river, there was this monolith of an electrical plant–it looked like a castle,” he says. “I knew I had to get down there. There was an entrance by the plant, the gate was open, and I slipped down the hillside, right under 49th Street. It was so cold that the river was warmer than the air temperature, and you see the steam rising.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Photographs he took of the canal that morning are included in an exhibit of his work on display at Street Cafe in Uptown. The photos and paintings all reflect Royer’s interest in nature, its relationship to humanity, and what he calls the “cultural exchange of information.”
Royer joined the army reserve to help defray the cost of college and studied art at Penn State. He came to Chicago in 1992 and earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute in 1994. He’s been painting and shooting photographs ever since; currently he’s enrolled at Northeastern Illinois University to become certified as a teacher and works part-time as a photo technician at Stuart-Rodgers Photography in Evanston.
