Harry Callahan, Eleanor, Chicago, 1948
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Joyce and Robert Menschel
© Estate of Harry Callahan, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
‘Harry Callahan at 100’ at the NGA, Washington The year 2012 marks the centenary of the birth of photographer Harry Callahan (1912–1999). On view at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the exhibition ‘Harry Callahan at 100’ includes some 100 photographs from the 1940s through the 1990s.
October 2, 2011–March 4, 2012
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Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington / theartwolf.com
Born in Detroit in 1912, Callahan received no formal training as a photographer but -as the National Gallery explains in a press note- “his exceptional talent was immediately recognized“, and in 1946 László Moholy-Nagy hired him to teach at the Institute of Design, Chicago. “In a career that spanned nearly six decades” -the press note adds- “he repeatedly explored a few select themes—his wife Eleanor and daughter Barbara, nature, and the urban environment“.
“Harry Callahan at 100” is organized thematically and chronologically, and starts with early works made in and around Detroit, such as “Twig in Snow” (c. 1942) and “Store Front and Reflections” (c. 1943). Callahan’s aesthetic and technical experiments continued with the photographs of his wife, Eleanor (such as “Eleanor, Chicago, 1948”).and of his wife and daughter, Barbara (“Eleanor and Barbara, Lake Michigan, c. 1953”).
During his years in Chicago and Providence, Callahan began to document anonymous women on the streets of the city, first in close shots and then in full-figure shots from a low angle, such as in “Chicago (1961)”. In the 1970s Callahan returned to color photography, and his late photographs emphasized vibrant colors, long shadows, and the complex humanity of urban life.
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The Streets of New York: American Photographs from the Collection, 1938-1958 (exhibition, 2006-07)
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