That was the approach Ken Hedrich took in 1929 when he launched the Chicago architectural photography firm Hedrich Blessing. The company's iconic images of the Palmolive Building and the Board of Trade quickly attracted prominent clientele, including architectural monoliths Mies van der Rohe and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. So great was Hedrich Blessing's ability to portray architectural edifices as works of art that a portrait of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous residences (above) inspired the name Fallingwater. The Chicago Historical Society, which owns the vast Hedrich Blessing archives, recently mounted an exhibition, and from January 4 through March 16 ArchiTech, the well-known Chicago architectural art gallery, is offering original proof prints of the firm's most striking images, among them buildings by van der Rohe and Wright and Loop skyscrapers.
January 2002
