Finding Beauty in Chicago

Photographer Matt Dunlap is an expert at seeking out beauty in new cities. Being immersed in the setting is essential to his work, and his preferred method of transportation reflects that — though it may surprise you.

“If you can explore a town and not have to walk, if you can be in the middle between walking and driving, to me, that’s the best.”

Video Transcript

Meet Matt: photographer

(He films himself as he rides his Oneheel through Chicago, catching scenery of the city as he goes)

Matt Dunlap: One of my favorite things to do photo-wise or video-wise is, of course, explore places I’ve never been. Used to be I’d always be on my bike doing this, and you’d have to wear a helmet and sometimes Lycra, and I found a better way. And that better way came to me two years ago in the form of the Onewheel.

[Phone navigation voice] Turn left toward West Lasalle Drive.

(Matt rides through long tunnel)

Matt: It is the funnest way to see a town or city or explore something new. You can hit trails on it. You can blast down streets, sidewalks. You can get 15 miles an hour. Doesn’t take too long to learn it.

If you ever see someone in the wild on one of these, and you’re interested, ask them if you can test it out. Most people let you. You don’t know how much fun they are and how useful they can be until you ride one. And what else do I got to say about this?

To me, if you can explore a town and not have to walk, because walking takes forever and it stinks. It sucks. Driving — you miss too much because you’ve got to pay attention, traffic, idiots, people on bikes. You’ve got to watch out for these things. So if you can be in the middle between walking and driving, to me, that’s the best.

And it’s just so much more immersive on a bike, a Onewheel, whatever it may be to me. You just hop off, take photo, take video, take it while you’re moving, whatever you’ve got to do. It’s just, it’s a big thing of fun. Big thing of fun? Big bag of fun.