Through the viewfinder of a camera, two artists, Adam Novak and Sara Collins, have seen a pair of Chicago police officers moonlight as bagpipe players, a fistfight break out on Milwaukee and Division, and an impromptu block party begin in Englewood when residents dragged a man-size speaker onto the street and started blasting Lee Oskar’s “Haunted House.”

They have captured all that and more in the course of photographing “I Am Chicago,” a continuing project documenting Chicago’s neighborhoods. With a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, they have snapped pictures of disgruntled parking-meter readers, beaming newlyweds and freegan dog-walkers by setting up their cameras at close to 30 street corners across the city.

“Imagine bringing a lawn chair to a corner in Chicago for the day and really just watching what goes on,” Mr. Novak said.