Catherine Opie: Chicago (American Cities)

This group of 18 darkly radiant images of Chicago is the latest in the Los Angeles-based artist Catherine Opie's photographic series, American Cities, ongoing since 1997. Seeking to uncover aspects of each city's psychic and physical identity and sense of community, Opie's series has taken on Minneapolis, St. Louis, Los Angeles, New York and now Chicago--the American "City of Architecture." This newest body of work consists of a group of 14 nocturnal black-and-white photographs of Chicago's architectural landscape alongside a set of four deep, four-color "portrait" views of Lake Michigan at different seasons of the year. At only $12, the book itself is small enough to serve as the perfect sophisticated souvenir, and yet monumental in every way.