Chicago Architecture & Scenery

Every photographer has a favorite subject. For me, that subject has always been the city. I grew up here, and have been admiring this city's architecture and skylines since I was a kid. I have boxes of old photos shot with Kodak Instamatics, 110 film cameras, and old manual 35mm systems. Chicago is a city that is constantly changing. Buildings go up, their names change, and slowly but surely the city evolves into something new. My goal with these images is to show the very best of Chicago, in what I hope is the most interesting light. A common theme in my city photos is the overall lack of humans. This is by design, and requires some very early morning shooting at times. All images in this gallery are high resolution, and are well suited to large prints! Panoramic (ultra-wide) images cannot currently be printed through this site, but I have another lab set up to provide them for you. Contact me for details!

Chicago's Union Station. This interior view was shot in 6 separate frames, and combined in Photoshop into one image. This was taken at 6:00 AM on a Sunday to avoid the daily commuters that would normally be rushing through this room!
Union Station
A 5-shot panorama, taken near the intersection of Kinzie & Canal.
Chicago River
A view from the Planetarium, this is a 13 shot stitched panoramic that began at 132 megapixels! One of my very favorite photos, this is printed to almost 7' long, framed and on display in my home. Even at such a large size, the clarity and sharpness is still so realistic!
Sunset Pano
The south end of the Chicago skyline, moments before a storm.
Chicago Skyline
The John Hancock building and east Oak Street buildings in the distance, taken just after sunrise from the North Avenue Beach public chess benches.
Chicago Lakefront
This is my first version of this shot. The diamond shaped building is the Smurfit-Stone building, shown in the background of the "bean". "Cloudgate" is the official name of the metal sculpture created by Anish Kapoor. This 66' chrome plated work is located near the north end of Millenium Park, and draws photographers on a nearly constant basis.
Chicago bean
The Willis Tower (formerly Sears), as viewed from the Kinzie Street bridge.
Chicago River Willis Tower
732015675 mil park corrected
Chicago's Water Tower. Built in 1869, this was one of the only buildings to survive the Chicago fire in 1871.
water tower Chicago
646626437 tall pano
A sunrise view of the north loop area, taken from North Aveue Beach. This HDR photo was taken on a 7 degree day, and is a 25 second exposure. Shooting through a 10-stop ND filter, the camera is able to record a smooth lake surface, on a day that otherwise had 3-5' waves!! The water's surface in this photo is not frozen!
Chicago Skyline HDR
Navy Pier, and the Ferris Wheel. The first Ferris wheel was built in Chicago in 1893 for the World's Columbian Exposition.
Navy Pier Ferris Wheel
chicago river
"The Friendly Confines"
A common view of the main entrance, converted in Photoshop into the image here.
Wrigley Field Chicago Cubs
The tall ship "Windy", shown docked and waiting on Navy Pier's south side.
Chicago Tall Ships
The Sears Tower and neighboring buildings, taken from the roof deck of the UIC parking garage at sunset.
Willis Tower Sears Tower
A view of the river & the Wells St. bridge, taken on a cloudy morning. This is my first entry into the field of HDR processing.
Chicago HDR
This is another image I worked on with the help of Nick Burwell. This was taken in July of 2008, using a 50mm lens and 7 vertical images stitched together in Photoshop. Camera work by PJ Matthews, all processing by Nick Burwell. Thanks again Nick! This is another very large file, and is heavily compressed to be shown on your monitor. Click on the photo for the larger sizes! This will easlily print to 36" or more wide, by approx. 8" high!
Chicago Skyline pano
Buckingham Fountain, located in Chicago's Grant Park, has lighting that constantly changes colors. This view, with the Sears Tower, CNA building, and others in the background, shows the rich blue lighting.
Buckingham Fountain Chicago
The Navy Pier Ferris Wheel, taken on an early spring morning.
Chicago Ferris Wheel Navy Pier
The Chicago Riverwalk, between State and Wabash.
Chicago River
Art Institute Chicago
north pano
This is a combined 11-shot panoramic view of the city, taken at sunrise. All frames were shot vertically for accuracy, and combined in Adobe Photoshop into one long image. Technically, this started out as a 110 Megapixel image with a file size of well over 100Mb! This version is downsized to fit here, with small reductions in image quality as a result. If you would like a print of this image, I will offer to send a DVD with the original you may take for printing. Click on the "CONTACT" tab at the bottom of the page for more details.
Chicago Skyline pano
Chicago Park Fall
IMG 7483
South Michigan Avenue, just after sunrise on a Sunday morning.
Chicago Michigan Ave.
The Water Tower, with the John Hancock and Water Tower Place buildings in the background.
Water Tower Chicago
The John Hancock building in the distance, taken from within the Navy Pier flower beds.
Hancock Building Chicago
A view of the Chicago riverwalk at sunrise, leading towards the new (almost complete) Trump Tower. This is intended to be a true-to-life view of this scene, made possible by HDR processing.
Trump Tower HDR
A view of the Chicago river from the State Street bridge. I shot this on a Sunday morning just before sunrise, and was fortunate to get a great sky color in the image. This photo is basically untouched...this was what I saw.
Chicago River
Millenium Park
Chicago's Water Tower, viewed through moving traffic on Michigan Ave.
Chicago Water Tower
Chicago, written in stone.
Chicago sign
The Chicago Sun Times relocated as their previous property became the Trump Tower. This is the new location, on the Chicago River's west end.
Chicago River
The eastern edge of Navy Pier, taken at sunrise, using HDR processing.
Navy Pier Sunrise
Hancock Building
Millenium Park Pritzker
Chicago's memorial to Veterans of the Vietnam war.
Chicago Vietnam Veteran Memorial
Marina Towers, seen from the Chicago Riverwalk.
Chicago Marina Towers
Chicago HDR
An artistic rendering of Navy Pier's Ferris wheel, with Lake Point Tower and the Crystal Gardens Center in the background. This shot was taken at sunrise, and processed with a "paint stroke" design in the final edit.
Navy Pier Art
Chicago Marina Towers
Chicago River
Millenium Park
North Ave. Beach during the 2009 Air & Water Show.
Chicago North Ave. Beach
chicago park
chicago sign

PJ Matthews Images

Photography By Matt Philbin

Chicago Architecture & Scenery