Chicago Cluster Project @ former Hedrich & Blessing Photographers, 400 N. Peoria
March 28 – April 27, 2025
When historical objects are deemed obsolete by archivists, historians, or other custodians, they present a critical opportunity for artists. Through their sensitivity and creative insight, artists are uniquely positioned to reevaluate historical visual materials and recontextualize them within contemporary concerns and practices. Photographers, in particular, are deeply engaged with the economy of images—their production, reproduction, and reinterpretation. Today, image production intersects with nearly every facet of the global economy and ecology, often carrying significant social, economic, political, and environmental consequences. Photography, in both its analog and digital forms, is inherently tied to these issues and must be continuously examined and challenged by contemporary cultural producers.
Rod Slemmons—an artist, curator, and educator whose career has been dedicated to the preservation, study, and activation of photographic history—invited Jan Tichy, artist, curator and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), to engage with his photography collections as a site for critical inquiry and creative exploration. Throughout his distinguished career as a curator, writer, editor, archivist, and museum director, Slemmons has consistently emphasized the importance of maintaining historical materials in active dialogue with contemporary practice. For fourteen years, he served as curator of photography at the Seattle Art Museum, where he developed its photography collection. In 2002, he relocated to Chicago to serve as executive director of the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago while also teaching at both Columbia and SAIC, further advancing his commitment to photographic archives as dynamic resources for education, creativity, and critical reflection. In response to Slemmons’ invitation, Tichy has approached the collection through this shared ethos, positioning the archive as a platform for contemporary artists to reconsider the photographic past and propose new possibilities for its continued relevance.
Archives and collections take many forms, each shaped by their own histories, values, accessibility, and interpretations—elements that define their role and significance in the world. In addition to its historical cameras, the Slemmons collection contains a substantial archive of historical photographs, assembled with the express purpose of advancing photographic education and fostering creative engagement. This collection is composed of numerous smaller sets of images, primarily photographs, organized thematically or by medium, and is distinguished by its social and educational value. These materials have joined the growing number of discarded photography and image archives that Tichy has received over the past decade. Yet the value of collections such as those from Slemmons, Flaxman, Abrahamson and Chesna remain ambiguous and open to interpretation, as they have been removed from their original contexts and functions.
The potential of these collections lies in their continued accessibility and their capacity to inspire education and creativity. This project seeks to activate the historical cameras and photographic archives by inviting contemporary Chicago-based photographers and educators to engage directly with them. Collectively, these artists represent multiple generations of photography education in the city—many having studied in Chicago and now contributing to its academic and cultural landscape. They bring a wide range of photographic practices, cultural backgrounds, and pedagogical approaches, offering new insights and perspectives through the materials they have selected from the collections.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of public programs designed to welcome diverse audiences into the dialogue. Artist talks, performances, film screenings, and workshops provide opportunities for deeper engagement with the ideas and questions explored across the twenty-four bodies of work. Both the exhibition and its programming are developed in collaboration with graduate students from the Management Studio course in the Arts Administration & Policy department at SAIC.
“Don’t make photographs, think them” was the motto of Hedrich & Blessing Photographers, a firm renowned for its innovative architectural photography that sought to capture the spirit of buildings. Operating from 1929 to 2017, the studio documented many of the defining works of 20th-century architecture while also supporting emerging Chicago photographers by hosting exhibitions in its headquarters as early as 1935. Today, the property at 400 N. Peoria is under the care of the Litowitz Family and continues to serve as a venue for the arts.
The opening hours at 400 N. Peoria, Chicago, IL
Mon-Thu by appointment through thechicagocluster@gmail.com
Fri – Sun 2pm-5pm and during programming events
Free parking on the premises
- Curatorial: Jan Tichy
- Design: Maggie Borota
- Programming: Mikayla Hernandez Guevara
- Production: Sarah Jane Podzielinski and Ho Man Tang
- Public relations: Karyna Vovkotrub
The Chicago Cluster Project name is derived from an obscure moment in American camera manufacturing history, when a considerable number of widely accessible simple plastic cameras were made in Chicago. The Depression Era manufacturing constraints led to wide production and reproduction approaches and innovative design solutions like the dual red window.
The Chicago Cluster project would like to thank Kiff and Rod Slemmons, Natasha Egan, Adena Portowitz, Laura Giampoli, Kate Dumbleton, Lizzie Leopold and Nick Litowitz for their trust and support.