The new American village

by Bob Thall

"Since 1971, Bob Thall has made photographs that examine and interpret Chicago's urban landscape. Now, continuing his extensive project to photograph the Chicago metropolitan area, Thall presents a complete picture of the nationally known area around Schaumburg and O'Hare International Airport - significant as perhaps the best example of a new type of American suburb, the "edge city."". "In The New American Village, Thall captures four components of the new edge city - corporate, commercial, domestic, and environmental - in a way that no previous photographer has achieved. To find the stark but provocatively beautiful images that appear in the book, Thall spent years exploring the western and northwestern suburbs of Chicago, photographing remnants of open land and farm structures, the process of clearing and construction, corporate headquarters, townhouse developments, model homes, office parks, strip malls, and the many aspects of nature that remain, in one way or another, in these mi