Phirst Photo Phriday!!

So if this is something I'll want to continue doing then I suppose the best way to start would be with the great master photographers of the 20th century. There are many, but I don't suppose there are any greater in my mind or as an influence on what I do than Harry Callahan. Here is a brief bio that seems to be accurate:

Born in Detroit, Callahan studied at Michigan State University before going to work for the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation. In 1936, he married Eleanor Knapp, who later became the subject of some of his most important images. Callahan bought his first camera in 1938, and credits Ansel Adams' visit to the Detroit Photo Guild in 1941 as pivotal in his decision to become a photographer. Although he had almost no formal artistic training he received encouragement early in his career from such luminaries as Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. At the invitation of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Callahan joined the staff of the Institute of Design in Chicago (later known as the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1946. In 1948 his work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Callahan left Chicago in 1961 to establish a photography program at the Rhode Island School of Design. There he was joined by Aaron Siskind (who had been a colleague at IIT). Callahan was chair of the Department of Photography until 1973 and continued to teach at RISD thru 1977.

As for influencing me personally, his images have been a source of inspiration since very early in my photography career. It was some time in 1997 that I began my first college level photography course at the University of Georgia with Dr. Robert Nix. Dr. nix was, at the time, in the latter years of life and of his career. He was a kind old man with a bald head and what  hair remained was white as snow. Although I was never told this directly I believe he was being pushed out of the photography department to make room for the new, Yale photography graduate school-educated photographer that made the University look better. But he knew something about photography that none of my other professors ever manged to convey to me. He knew about the importance of simplicity, the beauty of what's not included as opposed to having it all thrown in your face. He was the first person to show me the work of Harry Callahan and I will forever be grateful to him for that. So I'd like to leave it at that and try and convey what I mean with images. I'm going to show some of Callahan's images and if it's appropriate, some of mine to show his influence on my work. 

 

This is an example of what I really love about Harry Callahan. When he made this picture you might think that he was interested in the structure of all of these windows, in their similarities,  but i think he was interested not in that but in what made them different! The subtleties of the differences in their shapes, their reflections, and even in their spacing. He took something that people pass by every day and if they think about it at all, they think it's a bunch of windows, exactly the same. He took that framed it and made you look at the differences. It's the same thought I was having when I made the Perfect Blue Buildings photograph. It's a seemingly repetitive pattern but the really interesting things are the small pieces, the tiny lines like no other in the image, that make it work. Obviously, I am more a color photographer and Harry, if I may be so bold as to call him by his first name, was a black and white photographer but I think our intentions were the same. 

Above is bar none my favorite Callahan image of all time! And up there in the list of top photographs of all time. The beauty of this image again is it's simplicity. Upon first glance I, and I think most people, assumed it was a pen and ink drawing. A simplified sketch of the female anatomy maybe. But on further inspection you realize it's a photograph! It's a lonely little weed set against a stark white sky! An absolutely beautiful example of how simplicity can be so striking and powerful in art. My photograph below was actually made before I had any knowledge of the weed photo from Callahan, but again, my intentions were almost identical. I admit though, his was a much better solution! None the less, simplicity is the name of the game in both images. 


In the end what I really love about Callahan is his willingness to experiment. He was not a trained photographer so he wasn't restrained in what he did. He tried it all, even if that meant his work was a little disparate. He enjoyed photography and that I think is why I feel such a bond to him. I love what I do and I hope that it comes through in my images as it does in his. Here are a couple of other Callahan images that I've always loved that further illustrate that point. Thanks for reading!!