Baan has earned particular renown for his evocative aerial images, typically taken with a simple 35 mm camera as he leans out of a helicopter (door open!) thousands of feet up. “I’m interested in stepping away and showing the buildings in a larger context,” says Baan, 40, who hails from the Netherlands but is now more or less a nomad, constantly traveling for his work. “With the high-altitude shot, you start to see the city as a fabric.”

Last fall, the Chicago Architecture Biennial commissioned him to photograph this city’s skyline for an exhibit that will be on display October 3 to January 3 at the Chicago Cultural Center.