Harry Callahan, Eleanor

Harry Callahan

B. United States, 1912-1999

Highlights

1

Harry Callahan Installation

Installation view ‘Harry Callahan: New York | Detroit’. The exhibition explored Callahan’s career from the early 1940s until the late 1950s, when the photographer was based in Chicago. Having met László Moholy-Nagy in 1946, Callahan joined the faculty of the New Bauhaus that Moholy-Nagy had established in Chicago. Callahan’s photographs from the 1940s share the principles of Bauhaus design and experimentation.

The Works

33

1

Harry Callahan

Sunlight on Water

1943

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

2

Harry Callahan

Weeds in Snow, Detroit

1943

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

3

Harry Callahan

Multiple Exposure Tree, Chicago

1956

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

4

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

1949

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

5

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

1949

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

6

Harry Callahan

Eleanor

1948

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

7

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

1949

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

8

Harry Callahan

Chicago

1950

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

9

Harry Callahan

Eleanor

1948

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

10

Harry Callahan

Eleanor and Barbara, Chicago

1953

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

11

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Detroit

c. 1942

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

12

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

1951

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

13

Harry Callahan

Detroit

1943

Silver gelatin print, printed c. 1970s

14

Harry Callahan

Providence

c. 1967

Silver gelatin print, printed c. 1967

15

Harry Callahan

Providence

c. 1967

Silver gelatin print, printed c. 1967

16

Harry Callahan

Lake Michigan

1953

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

17

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Port Huron

1953

Silver gelatin print, mounted on board, printed before 1964

18

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

c. 1952

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

19

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

1953

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

20

Harry Callahan

Eleanor

1949

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

21

Harry Callahan

Wall, Chicago

1947

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

22

Harry Callahan

Ivy Tentacles on Glass, Chicago

c. 1952

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

23

Harry Callahan

Collage, Chicago

1957

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

24

Harry Callahan

Collage, Chicago

1957

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

25

Harry Callahan

Collages

c. 1956

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

26

Harry Callahan

Collage, Chicago

1957

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

27

Harry Callahan

Eleanor and Barbara, Chicago

1953

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

28

Harry Callahan

Eleanor, Chicago

c. 1952

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

29

Harry Callahan

Chicago

c. 1948

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

30

Harry Callahan

Chicago

1948

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

31

Harry Callahan

Camera Movement on Flashlight, Chicago

c. 1949

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

32

Harry Callahan

Detroit

1945

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

33

Harry Callahan

Royal Oak, Michigan

1945

Silver gelatin print, printed 1970s

Harry Callahan

B. United States1912-1999

harry callahan

B. United States1912-1999

Biography

Harry Callahan was intuitive and introverted in his work, and from the very start of his career, it was his wife Eleanor that was to be his central model and muse. Throughout his career, Callahan’s photographs were a deeply personal response to his own life; he photographed his wife and daughter and the streets, scenes and buildings of the cities in which they lived.

A professor at the New Bauhaus, later the Chicago Institute of Design, Callahan’s photographs from the 1940s share the principles of Bauhaus design and experimentation, showing a strong sense of light, line and form. With the formal precision of the European Modernism that he had learnt from Lázlo Maholy-Nagy, Callahan aimed to express his feelings about life through his photography. Much of his work from this period explores total abstraction and the technicalities of the photographic medium. Callahan often used double and triple exposures, blurs, extreme contrasts and collage. He stayed at the school until 1961 when he moved to Rhode Island to establish a photography programme at the Rhode Island School of Design, remaining there until his retirement in 1977.

Harry Callahan was born in Detroit, Michigan. He studied Chemical Engineering and Business at Michigan State University but left before completing his course, accepting a job at the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation in 1936. Here he took up photography, becoming a member of Chrysler’s Camera Club in 1938 and two years later joining Detroit’s Photo Guild. Since his first one man show in 1947, Callahan’s work has been the subject of over sixty solo and group exhibitions around the world. In 1955 Edward Steichen included his work in the Museum of Modern Art’s famous touring exhibition, The Family of Man. He was also the first photographer chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1978. Callahan was the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972 and the National Medal of Arts in 1996. He died in Atlanta in 1999. Callahan’s archive is now held by The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

Discover

3

Exhibitions

1

Harry-Callahan-Huxley-Parlour

Harry Callahan: Chicago | Detroit

13.3 - 6.42019

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