“Fishing Day” is a photograph that I took over the summer in a park located on the south side of Chicago. Taken on expired 35mm film, I felt that this photo captured a connection Chicagoans have to nature that is typically forgotten because of the large cityscape that overshadows how close the city is to the water: Lake Michigan. As someone born and raised in the city, Lake Michigan was a staple to my experience of the city, a luxury even to be so close to the Great Lakes. While this photograph is not located at the actual shores of Lake Michigan, it exudes the same serenity many Chicagoans feel being near the lake, away from the bustling cars for just a moment on a summer day.
Haley Cao
Haley Cao (they/them) is a third-year student at Columbia University, pursuing their B.A. in Creative Writing with a concentration in Nonfiction. Their creative writing work focuses on family, gender, and sexuality in relation to the Asian American experience. Haley's written work can be found in Silk Club’s zine, QUIET 06 (April 2021), Sinister Wisdom 122 (October 2021), and their chapbook, We (2019). For their future projects, they hope to incorporate their traditional writing education with their self-taught passion for photography. Find them on their website or Instagram.