Today is World Photography Day

I tell people that it was only when I started taking pictures that I began to see. To notice in everyday life all the wonders we pass by blindly, blinkered by intent going somewhere that seems important.

All Hollows' Eve, at the Stroke of Midnight, the Calatrava Spire Vanishes, Forever

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Slowly, the eerie clouds wrap around Santiago Calatrava's twisting phantom tower.  The clock strikes twelve.  The shrieking birds scatter. The dream dies.  The vision melts into air, into thin air.

The Trib's Mary Ellen Podmolik reported Friday that developer Garrett Kelleher has finally conceded that he won't be able to raise the cash to bring the doomed Chicago Spire project out of bankruptcy.  If he doesn't pony up the $22 million by end of day, the site - intended to be a 2,000-foot-high skyscraper but never getting beyond being anything more than a massive hole in the ground - will become the property of Related Midwest, which recently opened another rescued project, the 59-story 111 West Wacker.

This is the end, beautiful friend 
This is the end, my only friend, the end 
Of our elaborate plans, the end 
Of everything that stands, the end 
No safety or surprise, the end 
I'll never look into your eyes, again

Relive the Whole Amazing Story . . .

The Epic Fable of Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire