Resume
Born: 1948. Lived in Chicago, Illinois until 2011 and now resides in Evanston, Illinois
Education
Master of Fine Arts in Design and Studio Arts, 1986, University of Illinois, Chicago
Bachelor of Arts in Design – Photo-Film, 1972, University of Illinois, Chicago
Teaching Experience
2011 – 2017 Associate Professor Columbia College Chicago
1999 – 2011 Chair, Photography Department, Columbia College Chicago, Columbia College
1983 – Full-time Faculty, Columbia College Chicago
1980 – 1983 Adjunct Faculty, Columbia College Chicago
1978 – 1983 Part-time Faculty, Columbia College Chicago
Representation
Shashi Caudill Photographs and Fine Art, Chicago, IL
Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA
Books Published
At City’s Edge: Photographs of the Chicago Lakefront, by Bob Thall, Center for American Places in Association with Columbia College, 2005
City Spaces: Photographs of Chicago Alleys, by Bob Thall, with an afterword by Ross Miller, Center for American Places, 2002
The New American Village, by Bob Thall, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999
The Perfect City, by Bob Thall, with an essay by Peter Bacon Hales, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994
Selected Fellowships and Grants
1998 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
1998 Graham Foundation Grant (in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Photography in support of The New American Village)
1998 Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation Grant (in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Photography in support of The New American Village)
1987 Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship
Selected Exhibitions (* indicates One-person Exhibits – otherwise Group Exhibit)
2017 Bricks and Metaphor: Architecture as Poetic Space. Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
2016 MoCP at 40. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2016 The Chicago Gift Revisited. California Museum of Photography, Riverside California
2015 The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980 Princeton University Art Museum
2014 The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980, Art Institute of Chicago
2014 Second Sight, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2014 35 Years of Public Art, Chicago Cultural Center
2013 City Self, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
2011 In Chicago, Samek Art Gallery, Bucknell University
2008 Made in Chicago: Photographs from the LaSalle Bank Collection, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
2007 REAL Photography Award Exhibition, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2006 Photographs by the Score: Personal Visions Twenty-Some Years Apart, Art Institute of Chicago
2004 *City Spaces Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, Oregon
2003 The Human Form Divine: The Body as Seen by the Camera The Art Institute of Chicago
2001 Chicago in the Year 2000, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago
2001 *Bob Thall Photographs Roosevelt University, Schaumburg Campus
2000 *Bob Thall Photographs, Art Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
1999 *Archeology: Photographs of Chicago Alleys, Carol Ehlers Gallery, Chicago
1999 *The Chicago River, 1974-1998, City of Chicago Photography Gallery at the Water Tower, Chicago
1999 *The New American Village, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
1999 Landmarks, Chicago/New York, Chicago Cultural Center
1999 Underconstruction, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee
1998 Streets of Chicago, Ehlers Caudill Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1998 From Corporate Collections, Gallery 312, Chicago, Illinois
1997 Fermi National Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois, Two-person Exhibition
1997 The Museum Van Bommel-Van Dam, Venlo, Netherlands
1996 Art in Chicago, 1945-1995, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
1996 Creating the North American Landscape, Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina
1996 Landscape Photographs, Ehlers Caudill Gallery Chicago
1995 *Place: Photographs of the Midwestern Landscape, 1972-1995, Ehlers Caudill Gallery, Chicago
1995 New Photography from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota, Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin
1995 *Bob Thall Photographs, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY
1994 *The Perfect City: Photographs of Chicago by Bob Thall, Art Institute of Chicago
1992 Systems of Vision, Ehlers Caudill Gallery, Chicago
1991 Site Work, Photographers Gallery, Halina House, London, England and traveling
1990 Florida Landscape, Norris Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Two-person exhibition.
1989 Changing Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago and Chicago Cultural Center.
1987 Road, Roadside, Art Institute of Chicago and Illinois State University Museum, Normal, Illinois
1985 Chicago Photographers, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
1985 Recent Acquisitions, Art Institute of Chicago
1984 *Bob Thall Photographs, Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago
1984 *River Edges, Loyola University Gallery, Chicago
1984 *University of Kansas Gallery, Lawrence, Kansas
1984 *Tarrant College Gallery, Ft. Worth, Texas
1983 Chicago, the Architectural City, Art Institute of Chicago
1983 Film and Foto, Santa Fe Center for Photography, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1983 Landscape Starts Here, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York and traveling
1983 *Bob Thall Photographs, Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography, Chicago
1983 Landmarks Reviewed, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Florida and traveling
1982 *Swen Parson Gallery, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
1982 Robert Freidus Gallery, New York, New York
1982 Edwynn Houk Gallery, Chicago
1981 *Landscape/Cityscape, Moming Art and Dance Center, Chicago
1981 California Museum of Photography, Riverside, California
1981 Bronfman Center, Montreal, Canada
1981 Dittmar Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
1980 *Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Illinois.
1980 Luminescence, Truman College, Chicago, Illinois
1979 Court House, Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, Texas
1978 Court House, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1977 Court House, Museum of Modern Art, New York
1977 Artists View the Law, Smart Gallery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Selected Publications
City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, 1960–1980 by Katherine A. Bussard, Alison Fisher, Gregory Foster-Rice, November 2014
On City Streets: Chicago 1964-2004, by Gary Stochl. With an Introduction by Bob Thall, Center for American Places in Association with Columbia College, 2005
Chicago Photographs, edited by Carol Ehlers with an essay by John Szarkowski. LaSalle Bank, 2005
Harvard Design Review, Fall 2000, photographs and essay from American Village
View Camera Magazine, July-August 2000, photographs and essay from American Village
Art in Chicago, Thames and Hudson/Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996
The National Road, edited by Karl Raitz, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996
View Camera, February 1996 Portfolio and Essay
HQ Magazine, (Munich) Number 34 1/1996 Portfolio
Leonardo, (Vienna) March 1995 Portfolio
Site Work: Architecture in Photography Since Modernism, Exhibition Catalogue, Photographers Gallery, London. 1991
Changing Chicago, A Photodocumentary, University of Illinois Press, 1989
Landmarks Reviewed, edited by Barry Winoker, Pensacola Museum of Art, 1983
Chicago’s Famous Buildings, edited by Ira Bach, 3rd Edition, University of Chicago Press, 1980
Court House, edited by Richard Pare, Horizon Press, 1978
Camera, May 1976, Switzerland (Portfolio and interview)
Commissioned Projects
2007 McCormick Place West, Five Murals Installed
2000 Midway Airport Public Art Competition, Two 26’ Murals Installed
1976-98 Numerous projects for the Chicago Commission on Architectural and Historical Landmarks
1994 Route 40 in Indiana and Ohio, photographed for the A guide to the National Road, Edited by Karl Raitz, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996
1986-7 Lemont, Illinois photographed for the Upper Illinois Valley Association
1983-7 Terra Cotta Buildings of Chicago photographed for the Canadian Centre for Architecture
1983 Central Manufacturing District photographed for the Photography Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
1976 Historic Buildings of Iowa photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey, US Park Service
1975-8 County Courthouses photographed for the Seagram Bicentennial Project
1975- Numerous commissions for architectural firms
Selected Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
The Art Institute of Chicago
California Museum of Photography, Riverside, California
Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal, Canada
Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona
Chicago Historical Society
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities, Santa Monica, California
(Complete set of contact prints of the “Perfect City” project (4000+ images 1972-1991) and approximately 200 large prints.)
Hallmark Collection, Kansas City, Missouri
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
International Museum of Photography, Rochester, New York
ING Collection, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
LaSalle Bank Collection, Chicago
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mills College Art Museum
Milwaukee Art Museum
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
Paine-Weber Collection, New York, New York
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Seagram Collection, New York, New York
Smart Museum, University of Chicago