PART 2 - PROJECT 2 - RESEARCH POINT
HARRY CALLAHAN AND HIS WIFE ELEANOR
When I read about Harry Callahan, I was immediately attracted by his work, even if I did not know him before.
I googled his name then, associated with his wife's name, and found out several images and some text works about his opera.
I decided to focus on his portraiting of his wife Eleanor and daughter Barbara.
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| abstract of https://www.lensculture.com/articles/harry-callahan-harry-callahan-the-photographer-at-work (accessed 6/2/2019) |
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| https://www.americansuburbx.com/2015/02/harry-callahan-loved-eleanor-barbara-and-chicago.html (accessed 6/2/2019) |
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| https://www.moma.org/collection/works/124453 (accessed 6/2/2019) |
I then had the chance to buy the catalogue "Henry Callahan: the photographer at work", a work by Britt Salvesen, produced in conjunction with the exhibition organized by the Center For Creative Photography, The University of Arizona, Tucson in 2006 and published in the same year in association with Yale University Press (ISBN 0-300-11332-3).
In my reading fo this book I focus on the part regarding Callahan's portraiture.
In the Foreword, by John Szarkowski, I find a first cue on this topic: providing that when Szarkowski met Callahan (1953), Polaroid was popular, Callahan, when asked by a woman what was his opinion on that kind of photography, stated that Polaroid cameras were an insult to real photography.
The statement by Callahan is interesting, especially when we know that Polaroid cameras have mostly been used for portraying.
This statement gives a clue in reflecting on Callahan's portraiture: he made extended use of post-production, post-printing and multiple exposures, so that these practices were essential parts of his art, and obviously not possible with Polaroid photography.
Ad written by Britt Salvesen (page 27-28) Callahan, once devoted to nature photography and influenced by Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, in 1943 extended his "view" of photography, and of music as well.
He began to listen to jazz, especially bebop, he learned improvisation, he learned about Walker Evans, berenice Abbott, Helen Levitt, Paul Strand, Eugene Atget, Man Ray and others.
So he decided to buy an handy 35mm Contax single lens reflex and, stimulated by street photography, produced a set of portraits of pedestrians in Detroit.
It looks he was inspired by artists like Walker Evans, but he gave a personal shape to his works carrying-in his experiences in nature photography and multiple exposure.
Salvesen states that conventional portraiture failed to interest Callahan: at the moment to decide wether or not dedicate himself to photojournalism, Callahan saw this choice like the clerical work he had done and left when he was an accounting employee.
In 1945 he met, in New York, photographers like Berenice Abbott, Helen levitt, Lisette Model and Paul Strand.
In 1946, after having left his clerical work at General Motors, moved to New York and gone back to Detroit, finally he had a job as photography teacher at Moholy's Institute of Design in Chicago.
While, as a teacher, he was giving assignments to students, Callahan developed his interest and knowledge ("learning by teaching") of different techniques, like viewpoint, multiple exposure, form, light, motion, camera movement and others.
Callahan declared "In Detroit..... I photographed people'e heads and faces with a 35 mm. And they weren't real strong, but that's when it started. Then i got real good ones, for me, around 1950.... It's the way I've always worked. I do something and it doesn't come out too good, the I get fed up and finish it. And then I realize later that it's something I still want to do." (Callahan is cited in Pultz, "Harry Callahan and American Photography", 198 (n. 10) based in his interviews with the artist, march 9-12, 1989)
Between 1950 and 1953 Callahan developed more and more the double exposure technique and he used it with his wife Eleanor as a subject, an egg and Chicago as a background, and then put everything in a single picture. At the time this technique was very sophisticated and difficult to master, but Callahan succeeded and produced a lot of material with Eleanor as sitter.
Eleanor Callahan said that photography was "part of our daily life", because her husband was photographing her at every hour of the day.
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| My photo of Callahan's portrait by Wayne Miller from "Henry Callahan: the photographer at work", page 32 |
Ad written by Britt Salvesen (page 27-28) Callahan, once devoted to nature photography and influenced by Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz, in 1943 extended his "view" of photography, and of music as well.
He began to listen to jazz, especially bebop, he learned improvisation, he learned about Walker Evans, berenice Abbott, Helen Levitt, Paul Strand, Eugene Atget, Man Ray and others.
So he decided to buy an handy 35mm Contax single lens reflex and, stimulated by street photography, produced a set of portraits of pedestrians in Detroit.
It looks he was inspired by artists like Walker Evans, but he gave a personal shape to his works carrying-in his experiences in nature photography and multiple exposure.
Salvesen states that conventional portraiture failed to interest Callahan: at the moment to decide wether or not dedicate himself to photojournalism, Callahan saw this choice like the clerical work he had done and left when he was an accounting employee.
In 1945 he met, in New York, photographers like Berenice Abbott, Helen levitt, Lisette Model and Paul Strand.
In 1946, after having left his clerical work at General Motors, moved to New York and gone back to Detroit, finally he had a job as photography teacher at Moholy's Institute of Design in Chicago.
While, as a teacher, he was giving assignments to students, Callahan developed his interest and knowledge ("learning by teaching") of different techniques, like viewpoint, multiple exposure, form, light, motion, camera movement and others.
Callahan declared "In Detroit..... I photographed people'e heads and faces with a 35 mm. And they weren't real strong, but that's when it started. Then i got real good ones, for me, around 1950.... It's the way I've always worked. I do something and it doesn't come out too good, the I get fed up and finish it. And then I realize later that it's something I still want to do." (Callahan is cited in Pultz, "Harry Callahan and American Photography", 198 (n. 10) based in his interviews with the artist, march 9-12, 1989)
Between 1950 and 1953 Callahan developed more and more the double exposure technique and he used it with his wife Eleanor as a subject, an egg and Chicago as a background, and then put everything in a single picture. At the time this technique was very sophisticated and difficult to master, but Callahan succeeded and produced a lot of material with Eleanor as sitter.
Eleanor Callahan said that photography was "part of our daily life", because her husband was photographing her at every hour of the day.