Heinz Ketchup GNM - 10x8" Print

Photograph & manipulation by Don Henderson.

Digital photograph of a Heinz Ketchup bottle in the front window of a bar on Smithfield Street in Pittsburgh.

For over a decade, I did graphic design and illustration work for HJ Heinz Company in Pittsburgh, first on temporary duty covering vacations for Prisma's in house staff at both the Northside facility and later full time at the Heinz 57 Center in the old Gimbles Building on Smithfield Street and 6th Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Everyday while working there, I would park my Jeep at Station Square on the Southside and hike across the Smithfield Street Bridge and down Smithfield Street. Every morning and evening, I would take photos along my mile long walk. Working at Heinz, it was all ketchup, all the time. Almost every day, I would be working on some advertising project that was Heinz Ketchup related. My day started by seeing and often photographing this Heinz Ketchup bottle in a barroom window on Smithfield Street as I walked to work.

Heinz Ketchup is almost a religion in Pittsburgh, it's everywhere and we use it on just about everything. True Pittsburghers will use nothing else but Heinz Ketchup. Heinz was so effective in there advertising campaigns, that Heinz Ketchup is part of Pittsburgh DNA, even though it hasn't been made here in a very long time. Bottling of Ketchup was moved to Ohio long ago and Heinz phased out their single serving packet production at their Northside plant in 1999. Still the Heinz Ketchup culture persists even to the degree that when the Pittsburgh Steeler sold the naming rights, to our tax payer funded stadium, to a higher bidder, Pittsburghers refused to accept the name change. Heinz is so ingrained in our culture, that most people here say that, "It will always be Heinz Field to me"! 

I eventually lost my contracted job at Heinz in 2012, not long after Warren Buffett bought the farm and gutted Heinz in Pittsburgh, but I do look fondly back on all the interesting people I knew while working for Heinz. If you are a true Pittsburgher or just someone who loves Heinz Ketchup, you need to buy this series of Heinz Ketchup prints! 

I shot these trying to mimic Pittsburgh photography legend Saul Leiter's work, whose use of reflection and abstract shape always fascinated me.  

Printed from an Epson Expression XP-15000 printer using Claria Hi-Definition Ink on a 8.5x11" Epson glossy digital photo paper.

Mailed in flat, rigid envelopes to prevent damage or curling, and are ready to frame.

* Watermark will not appear on physical print.