April 30 – July 27, 2003

“Don’t make photographs, think them.” Ken Hedrich’s philosophy made the company he founded with Henry Blessing the most renowned architectural photography firm in the world. The photographs coming from its studio depict architecture as art, with photographers capturing unconventional perspectives and framing unusual compositions. Since 1929, Hedrich Blessing photographers have created stunning photographs of more than 55,000 projects, popularizing the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and countless others. Building Images featured some of the studio’s best work, displaying 80 photographs in both color and black and white taken over the course of seven decades. The exhibition was drawn from a retrospective presented at the Chicago Historical Society, home to the Hedrich Blessing Photographic Collection. The extraordinary cooperation of Hedrich Blessing in the preparation of the exhibition was invaluable — and made the exhibition that much more an accurate reflection of the firm itself.