Allen Hess received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Dayton Art Institute, and his Master of Fine Arts in Photography from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1976. He has taught fine art photography and digital imaging in various institutions including Princeton University, Boston College, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology and The Visual Studies Workshop.

From 1984–1990 he was the photographer for Polaroid Replicas 40×80 inch camera at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The initial and primary use was to make life size photographs of art in the Museum of Fine Arts. In the pursuit of improved color fidelity, the Replicas program incorporated a digital intermediate step which we would now consider color profiling. Like the smaller 20×24 inch Polaroid, Allen also worked with artists Evergon, Chuck Close, William Wegman, David Hockney, Marie Cosindas, Marina Abramovic and Elsa Dorfman to make 40″x80″ Polaroid photographs.

His personal work has been twice honored by his peers through National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1981 and 1990. He was twice a finalist in the Massachusetts Council of the Arts competition and received a Maine Photographic Workshops Work Grant award in 1988 to make aerial photographs of floods. 

• Mr. Hess’ work has been exhibited at
  • The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Addison Gallery of American Art
  • Houston Center for Photography
  • National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
  • International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
  • Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University
  • Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
  • Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
• His work in housed in numerous United States collections such as those of the
  • International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
  • Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
  • National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
  • Hallmark Photographic Collection, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
  • Art Institute of Chicago
  • Canadian Center for Architecture, Montreal
  • New Orleans Museum of Art
  • The Historic New Orleans Collection
  • Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
  • University of Louisville Photographic Archives
  • Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE

Published examples of his work may be found in: LOUISIANA LENS, FROM HERE TO THE HORIZON, BETWEEN HOME AND HEAVEN, Contemporary Landscape Photography by Merry Foresta; THE NEW COLOR by Sally Eauclare; COURT HOUSE, edited by Richard Pare, and VIEW CAMERA Jan/Feb. 2001.