A 60-Year Love Affair With Chicago, Caught on Film

Six decades of Chicago live inside the retirement-home apartment of the photographer Lee Balterman. Filed in cabinets, hung on walls and stacked precariously on most every available surface are thousands of Chicago moments captured on film.

Looking through albums and loose stacks of his photographs with a recent visitor, Mr. Balterman gave descriptions in a clipped, rapid-fire style: “Downtown Chicago. Muhammad Ali. I don’t know. Just the street. He killed a man. In a parade. New Year’s Eve. Just a man at a restaurant. Maxwell Street. Randolph Street. London House. Just faces.”

Why so many pictures? “I was born that way,” he said gruffly.

Why Chicago?

“There’s the proof,” he said, pointing to a photo of a black family, circa the 1960s, gleeful as they walked out of a movie theater. “It’s a great city. The faces. Faces are good,” he said putting his hands up to his cheeks....