RECOMMENDED

One of the legions of Chicago photographers who testify to their love for their sweet home’s cityscape by shooting on the streets in their own distinctive styles, Joe Koecher distinguishes himself from the others by his split personality that makes him a visual Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Look at Koecher’s clear and sometimes garishly illuminate color and black-and-white images that he has printed on canvas, and you are in the comfortably familiar aesthetic of celebration, served up with the panache of angle shots—like a breathtaking view of steel-and-glass skyscraper caught through the spaces opened up in the Picasso sculpture—and striking effects like the downtown wreathed in a billowing fog captured from Olympian heights. Then enter the recesses of the back room and glom on to gritty rather than glitzy Chicago. Take a peek at Koecher’s lush shadowed nighttime take of a drawbridge (“Weight Limit 10 Tons”) in deep winter, caked with slushy, smudgy snow, and you will be tossed back into the coming cold and gray Chicago days with a surprisingly invigorating jolt. (Michael Weinstein)

Through November 30 at Wink Optical, 2736 North Lincoln