This last month, a fantastic surprise happened. An old friend of mine from Madrid was going to be in detroit and let me know he’d be flying in to Chicago for a few days. Since leaving Madrid, Marcus Hurst started a fantastic blog called Yorokobu and started making the beautifully designed Ling inflight magazine for Vueling, a Spanish airline. He asked if there was anything in Chicago he should do a piece on and one of the first things that came to mind was Specimen in Humboldt Park. They make amazing hand made guitars, tube amplifiers and have been making grammaphone-esque cone speakers for Andrew Bird for the last ten years or so. They’re so interesting they recently put up a huge installation of their pieces in the MCA in Chicago. One of the “inventions” of the owner Ian Schneller is a massive amp with a set of 2 rotating cone speakers that make the most lush sounding stereo chorus effect when a guitar is run through it. It filled the whole space with this gorgeous tone and made me want to just sit and listen for days. It reminded me of why I love my job. I get to meet interesting people making gorgeous things with varied stories. I’ve always been curious and photography gives me this pass to access so many things I’d never get to see or maybe never put the energy in to see. Being a tourist in my own city is fantastic.
