From the Archives/ O'Hare Airport, 1986

I’ve been a professional photographer for over thirty years, since 1989. I’ve shot hundreds of thousands of pictures during those years, but some of my favorites came even earlier– from my college years, when I was just starting out, unencumbered by needing to make money with my camera, just shooting whatever interested me at the time.

I’ve recently been scanning tens of thousands of my old negatives and slides, a project which I estimate will take me about ten years to complete. These scans are from December 1986, when I shot a documentary project for a college photo class, spending a couple days at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport just before Christmas.

The photos represent a different era, when a young guy with a camera could walk anywhere in the airport for hours, even up to the gates after a quick scan through security. When passengers didn’t have smartphones and you got in contact with the outside world by using one of the public pay phones on the wall. When everyone carried physical tickets with them. And passengers smoked while they waited to board their flights.

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