“It might be said that the subject of Callahan’s photographs is photography, and that his world exists essentially as
a formal problem.” John Szarkowski
Harry Callahan was one of the most respected and influential American photographers of the modern era. He was
a master of traditional genres such as portraiture, landscape, architecture and nature studies, but also experimented
with new ways of using the medium. One of Callahan’s favorite themes was the repeating pattern, whether
in multiple reeds reflected on a lake‘s surface or the rows of windows on a building‘s facade. While lesser known
than some of his other work, Callahan’s collages demonstrate an intense interest in and profound understanding of
the process of photographic seeing. His collages are rigorous yet playful explorations of a visual world created in his
studio. The subject is either faces cut from magazines or rectangles cut from black or white paper. Callahan then
photographed the collages pinned to his studio wall on his 8×10 inch view camera, one leading to the next to create
this never before published series.
Harry Callahan (1912–1999), born in Detroit, began his career as an amateur photographer. After attending
a lecture and workshop by Ansel Adams in 1941, and a meeting with Alfred Stieglitz in 1942, Callahan decided to
devote his energies to photography. In 1946 he followed an invitation by László Moholy-Nagy to teach at Chicago’s
Institute of Design. He left in 1961 to chair the photography department at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Callahan held that position until 1973 and retired from teaching altogether four years later. Harry Callahan was the
recipient of numerous distinctions, and he was chosen to represent the United States at the 1978 Venice Biennial,
the first photographer to be so honoured. Since his first one-person show in 1947, Callahan’s work has been the
subject of over 60 solo and group exhibitions, 18 of which were at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Seven Collages
von Harry Callahan
