Jerry Olejniczak has been awed by places abandoned, forgotten, or otherwise on the sidelines of society since he was a kid. On trips to his family’s native Poland, he would thrill at the post-WWII ruins or empty construction sites he could visit in the then Eastern-Bloc country. As an adult, he began to cautiously try his hand at exploring the abandoned buildings he would pass occasionally at work. Soon, he bought a camera to document the unique beauty of the places he was finding. Jerry has lived most of his life in or around Chicago. He currently resides in Oak Park, Illinois, with his wife and two cats.
Chicago is known the world over for its architecture and theater, as well as a myriad of other tourist sights. Visitors, however, usually only see the “nice” parts of the...
Abandoned Chicago: Decay in the Windy City is an exploration through photographs of the shuttered buildings that are scattered all over Cook County, Illinois, and the city of Chicago—from beautiful...