Various Photographers

a group of 74 photographs by Aaron Siskind, Richard Nickel, James Blair, Asao Doi, Len Gittleman, Leon Lewandowski, Casimir Estramskis, Paul Hassel, and Alvin Loginsky, most with the Institute of Design credit stamp with credit in pencil, and typed description label on the reverse, 1952-54 (74)

According to Jeffrey Plank in his book Aaron Siskind and Louis Sullivan: The Institute of Design Photo Section Project (San Francisco, 2008): ‘In 1952 Siskind and his advanced photography students undertook a comprehensive photographic survey of Sullivan’s architecture and by early 1954 had photographed more than 60 Sullivan buildings. From hundreds of photographs Siskind composed an exhibit of 126 photographs of 35 Sullivan buildings, noteworthy for its startling juxtaposition of ornament details and carefully composed building portraits. Siskind’s exhibit was a documentation of Sullivan’s architecture unlike any other—and one that could never be repeated, because so many of Sullivan’s buildings were demolished shortly thereafter’ (p. 13).

Exhibition prints of 38 of the images offered here were included in Siskind’s show at the Institute of Design.