The noted architectural photographer Harold Allen taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from the 1940s through the 1970s. While his passion was the photographic documentation of America’s architectural heritage (often accompanied by his own original research), in this photograph he attentively recorded porcelain and glass objects in the State Street studio of Chicago artist Stanley Mitruk. Mitruk employed these objects in several still lifes, including a painting purchased by Allen the following year. Recognizing Allen’s talent for documentary photography, Hugh Edwards exhibited his work in 1966 and encouraged him to publish Father Ravalli’s Missions in 1972, a portfolio of two early mission churches in Montana and Idaho.