Merchandise Mart showroom
Silver gelatin print, 1938
8 x 12 inches

Farnsworth House
Architect: Mies van der Rohe
Silver gelatin print
8 x 12 inches

June 20, 2003 – August 30, 2003

In 2000, the Chicago Historical Society mounted a major retrospective of the history of Hedrich Blessing, the world’s largest and most experienced architectural photography company.

Comprising the most famous as well as rarely seen images from the H.B. archives, this landmark exhibition was the most comprehensive survey of architectural photography ever produced by an American museum.

Palmolive Building in Night Skyline Silver gelatin print 8 x 14 inches

Fallingwater Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright Silver gelatin print on mount 15 x 19 inches

ArchiTech Gallery is the exclusive agent for this great company’s collection of vintage proof prints and modern portfolios. This summer, ArchiTech will offer for sale the unique prints that Hedrich Blessing created solely for this museum exhibition.

One-of-a-kind prints of "Fallingwater," "Palmolive Building," "1933 Chicago World’s Fair," and other indelible images will be presented along with vintage proof prints from their archive of job files since the firm began in 1929.

Notes on the Exhibition:

Jack Hedrich had been the managing partner of Hedrich Blessing for forty years and, since 1993, had been the "keeper of the flame" as the chairman emeritus. He called me to ask if I wanted the exhibition prints the firm had made for their landmark museum show at Chicago’s Historical Society a year before.

North Pole Ice Cream Parlor Architect: Bertrand Goldberg Silver gelatin print 12 x 10 inches

Marina City Architect: Bertrand Goldberg Silver Gelatin print 12 x 10 inches

Hedrich Blessing had been one of my most important consignors since placing their vintage and period print collection with me in 2001. These museum exhibition prints of their most famous shots would certainly be the last ones they would ever produce themselves since they sold their archive of negatives to the museum. The idea of recreating their Historical Society exhibition, or at least remounting the images that were shown, seemed tailor made for ArchiTech. And with the added provenance of the museum show, the higher value of the photographs would be assured.

"Art of Hedrich Blessing" became the name of the exhibition. The Tribune art critic praised the images, saying "...the work of Hedrich Blessing was for 70 years authoritative, and so high a level of defining the way we see buildings is by no means encountered often."

Buyers decided that if they were ever going to have an HB photograph, these were the ones to choose from. The prices reflected the importance of the collection and the show achieved much of what I had hoped to accomplish. In the marketplace, architectural photography has a long way to go before it matches the value of design drawings but these photographs showed me that it won’t take long before my clients see them as worthy of their walls.