As the United States approaches its 250th birthday, the Columbia Chronicle is undertaking one of the most ambitious visual journalism projects in our newsroom’s history: documenting all 77 of Chicago’s community areas through photography.

The project is rooted in a simple idea: no single community can tell the story of a city as large and diverse as Chicago. So every day, we will be sharing a photo from all of Chicago’s community areas, many with very distinct neighborhoods.

At a moment when conversations about America often become flattened into political arguments and national narratives, local journalism still has the ability to slow down and pay attention to people and places. Photography is especially powerful in that work. A single image holds enough power to spark change and to demystify people and places. As John H. White teaches us in “Introduction to Photojournalism” at Columbia College, photojournalists should have an affair with life. He inspired us to go out and meet people, to see the beauty in our shared humanity. It is through this lens of photography that we are undertaking this project.  

Chicago is one of the most segregated cities in America, but it is also one of its most culturally layered and artistically vibrant.

This project is about the Chicago we see and the Chicago we don’t see. We aim to put a face to each community in Chicago. For 77 days, the Chronicle’s photojournalists will visit a different community area in Chicago to take photos and talk to the people, to create a visual record of Chicago at this moment in America’s history.