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SAHARA Highlights: G.E. Kidder Smith

Jun 12, 2024 by SAHARA Co-Editors Jacqueline Spafford and Jeannine Keefer
G.E. Kidder Smith is the subject of this year’s SAH Exhibition Catalogue Award,  G.E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography, (ORO Editions), 2022, by Angelo Maggi with a forward by Michelangelo Sabatino. Kidder Smith was a prolific photographer, writer and traveler, and a trained architect. He had a gift for understanding and unpacking all aspects of the built environment, and conveying that understanding to audiences at all levels. He had a keen photographic eye, with the ability to understand how any structure’s whole and its parts worked, and captured these elements along with the surrounding environment, and people to give context and scale, to provide an appreciation of the bigger picture. 

SAHARA was conceived over 15 years ago and was initially built through partnerships with Brown University, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through MIT’s contributions, SAHARA acquired over 3,500 images taken by Kidder Smith. The selections below show a glimpse of his talents: the careful compositions show the viewer exactly what he wants them to see and appreciate. Visit SAHARA on JSTOR to explore the rest of the Kidder Smith content.

Reminder: the SAHARA platform is almost finished transitioning to JSTOR, where our image collections are available alongside print materials, including JSAH. You can view the collection (your account log-in is the same as your existing SAHARA log-in) on JSTOR, the Members Collection as well as the open access Community Collection, here: https://www.jstor.org/site/sahara/ 

To learn more about contributing, visit: http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sahara   

All photos by G. E. Kidder Smith

Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Abbey of St. Mary and St. Louis, Saint Louis, Missouri, 1962. Detail of concrete roof arches, ca. 1965.


Le Corbusier, Millowners’ Association Building, Ahmadabad, Gujarat, India, 1951-54. View of façade and entrance ramp. Photograph ca. 1970.

Eero Saarinen & Associates, TWA Flight Center, JFK Airport, New York, NY, 1956-62. (Now part of the TWA Hotel/Terminal 5). Kidder Smith’s photo emphasizes both the weight and lightness of the concrete structure. Photograph ca 1966. 

Eero Saarinen & Associates, TWA Flight Center, JFK Airport, New York, NY, 1956-62. (Now part of the TWA Hotel/Terminal 5). The Arrival/Departure screen, with people and cars providing period context. Photograph ca 1966. 

Le Corbusier, Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh, India, 1952-63. This well-composed long view helps us understand the site. Photograph ca. 1967.

Anshen & Allen, Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, Arizona, 1956. Another example of Kidder Smith’s eye for location, light, and composition. Photograph ca. 1960.

Pierre Jeanneret, Gandhi Bhawan, Chandigarh, India, 1966. Kidder Smith captured this complex structure from many angles. Photograph ca 1967.

Victor Alfred Lundy, St. Paul Lutheran Church, Sarasota, Florida, 1959. This view highlights the massive stone and concrete pyramidal columns of the Fellowship Hall. Photograph ca 1960.

Eero Saarinen & Associates, Douglas W. Orr, et al.  D.S. Ingalls Hockey Rink, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1956-59. Photographed during construction, ca. 1957.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, American Republic Insurance Company, Des Moines, Iowa, 1964-65. This view of the open secretarial pool was likely one of the inspirations for Mad Men. Photograph ca. 1966