Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing

April 30, 2003 - July 27, 2003

“Don’t make photographs, think them.” — Ken Hedrich

Church in Mexico, 1987 © Jim Hedrich; courtesy The Hedrich Blessing Collection of the Chicago Historical Society

De Soto Pavilion, “A Century of Progress” International Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1933. Architect: Holabird & Root. © Ken Hedrich; courtesy The Hedrich Blessing Collection of the Chicago Historical Society

Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1985. Architect: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1951). © Jon Miller; courtesy The Hedrich Blessing Collection of the Chicago Historical Society

Hedrich Blessing is the world’s most renowned architectural photography firm. Founded in 1929 by partners Ken Hedrich and Henry Blessing, the Chicago studio revolutionized the way buildings were photographed and seen.

Instead of recording traditional documentary views of a building, Hedrich Blessing photographers selected a vantage point from which the design intent of the architect was revealed most strikingly. For the first time, unconventional perspectives, unusual compositions, and dramatic lighting were employed to distill three-dimensional structures into two-dimensional images. This innovative approach to depicting architecture as art became highly prized, especially by the new, emerging breed of modern architects.

Since then, many of the world’s seminal works of modern architecture have been popularized through Hedrich Blessing photographs, including those of Frank Lloyd Wright; Albert Kahn; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; Eliel Saarinen; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; I.M. Pei and many others.

The firm’s unprecedented longevity and continuing success are attributable to its apprenticeship structure and the unique artistry and talent of the seventeen photographers who have been “on camera.” Ken Hedrich’s mantra, “Don’t make photographs, think them,” has guided these prolific photographers in their interpretations of more than 55,000 projects and shaped the public’s understanding of the built environment.

In 1991, the Chicago Historical Society announced its acquisition of Hedrich Blessing’s photographic archives, and in 2000, the society presented a retrospective of the firm’s many accomplishments. Building Images presents eighty of the studio’s most stunning photographs, in color and in black and white, spanning the past seven decades of American architecture.

Sponsors

The exhibition is drawn from the recent retrospective presented at the Chicago Historical Society, home to the Hedrich Blessing Photographic Collection. The National Building Museum gratefully acknowledges the extraordinary cooperation of Hedrich Blessing in the preparation of this exhibition.

At the Museum, Building Images is made possible by the Ferris Foundation and the Museum’s F. Stuart Fitzpatrick Memorial Exhibition Fund.
 

Sponsors & Partners

Credits

Coordinating Curator — Chrysanthe B. Broikos

Exhibition Design — Elizabeth Kaleida, Nancy van Meter, and Chrysanthe Broikos with Nick Merrick, photographer and senior partner at Hedrich Blessing