Frank Lloyd Wright Photo Gallery

FLW Fact Sheet March 10 2016

Aerial photography of Frank Lloyd Wright structures. The missing viewpoint. A rare, if not unique, compendium of Frank Lloyd Wright sites, concentrated around Chicago and expanding as seasons, assignments, and finances permit. The newest images were taken with a high quality digital medium format Hasselblad and a 50mb CMOS Canon 5DS.

I began incidentally collecting Frank Lloyd Wright aerials while on assignment flights in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas. As my interest in the subject grew, I intensified my efforts to cover local and notable sites. From what my research produced, there was not a centralized, extensive aerial stock extending throughout the genre until Tigerhill came along. This is unique enough to be interesting.

The casual has become a collection that could be exhibited in a museum, perhaps with curatorial guidance. It grows as I add new sites. 93 sites flown to date. A good start on an exhibit already.

• Illinois: Oak Park Frank Lloyd Wright compound, Robie, Coonley, Dana Thomas, Laurent, North Shore, Charnley, Winslow, and many others.
• Wisconsin: Johnson and Wingspread several times, Taliesen East, Monona Terrace, and Greek Church twice, and many others.
• Buffalo NY: Graycliffe, Martin.
• Mill Run PA: Fallingwater in Autumn foliage.
• Springfield OH: Westcott House
• Iowa: Qausqueton, Walter; Cedar Rapids (Marion), Grant.
• St Louis MO: Kraus, Pappas.
• Phoeniz area AZ: Taliesen West, Gammage Auditorium, and eight others.
• Burbank area CA: Arch Obeler, Hollyhock, and seven others.
• Future acquisitions may take years to fly as assignments, finances, weather, leaf-off conditions and other factors dictate. A sponsor or patron certainly may accelerate this.

Near term sites:

• TX: Houston and Dallas.
• CA: San Francisco from Walker House in Carmel to the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael.
• FL: Florida Southern College in Lakeland.
• SC: Auldbrass Plantation in Beaufort.

Longer term:

• Scattered locations around the country, in the Atlantic Seaboard, Montana, Idaho, Oklahoma, and others.
• Hawaii.
• Europe.
• Japan.
• Refly some notable sites more deliberately for dramatic lighting: sunrise, sunset, landscape and interior lighting at night.
• Suggestions for priorities and poorly defined sites are welcome.
• Telephoto lenses and superb cameras yield good results by airplane in many cases. Some places are heavily wooded and are hidden until leaf-off conditions, if ever. Sometimes helicopter are appropriate. Always site specific.

Biography of John Hill

• Rather fly and shoot than hold an office job. Flying since 1967.
• Pilot, 8000 hours plus 5000 as photographer passenger, mostly in C-172, 182, and 210.
• Started Tigerhill Studio in 1975, incorporated 1983.
• Service disabled USMC veteran.

Books:

• Museums and Mansions of the Hudson River, 1985, author John Zukowsky. Aerial photos are mine.
• Benjamin Marshall, Architect, 2014, Acanthus Press, authors John Zukowsky and Jean Guarino. Some aerial photos are mine.