Chicago 2020

How is it possible to feel immediately at home in a place you have never seen before? This question still haunts photographer Ryan Bakerink twenty years after he first stepped off the train in Chicago, where he continues to live to this day.

This book is dedicated to the city for which his heart beats and describes a journey of self-reflection that ends in a time capsule of sorts. Throughout 2020, he took photographs in all seventy-seven community areas of the American city to trace his fascination for it, to find his place in it, and to understand how it has shaped him. Chicago 2020 is more than a declaration of love for a city. In a time of social and political turmoil defined by the pandemic, Bakerink discovers hidden treasures amidst the emptiness and the pure beauty of humanity.