Submitted by Al …
(Adapted from The Encyclopedia of Photography ©1963)
In December 1956, Harry Callahan received the highest grant ever given to a photographer in the creative field of still photography – a $10,000 fellowship from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts. Born in Michigan in 1912, Harry Callahan was a leading innovator in the art of photography. He was single-mindedly devoted to photography as a medium of creative expression. Prior to his teaching position at the Rhode Island School of Design, he was the Director of the Department of Photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago and taught a summer session at Black Mountain College. His photographs have been exhibited both here and abroad. Harry Callahan’s own words give us a personal, penetrating insight into his work and belief in photography.
August 1962 – Harry Callahan, Providence, Rhode Island…
“In order to make a statement about one’s photography, there should be some statement about oneself. I started photography as a hobbyist in 1938 at the age of 26. I had no formal training. In 1941, as a member of the Detroit Photo Guild, I saw and recognised for the first time some fine photography by Ansel Adams. This was a revelation. It led me to search out my own way of photographing intuitively. Searching and stumbling revealed to me that my photography would be one of continual change.
In the early days the view camera was my real joy. I could study and feel the image through beautiful photographic values of tone and texture. At this time I believed so strongly in tone and texture that I did nothing but contact printing – even later with 2-1/4 square negatives. On a good cold winter day, I was photographing in the snow in extremely soft and shadowless light, and on the groundglass I suddenly saw just the lines of weeds in the snow. Making photos this way seemed a sort of sin in relation to tone and texture because the only image I printed was line – no snow texture. Semi-consciously this opened a whole new way of seeing for me. My first adventure and change – brought on by some kind of need.
I bought a 35mm camera. I had an urge to photograph people on the streets of downtown Detroit, and to do it freely. First I shot recognizable action, people talking to each other, laughing together, etc. This had a literal value which has never been satisfying to me. While shooting this way I found that people walking were lost in thought and this was what I wanted. After a while this too became confining for the moment. At this time I was working full-time during the day and naturally did quite a few night shots. I started multiple exposing the street lights and went on to camera movement on street lights, neon signs, etc. Realizing that these photographs were beautiful in colour, I made my first decent colour shots of camera movement on coloured lights. I continued camera movement on all kinds of subjects in colour and black and white.
It's the subject matter that counts. I’m interested in revealing the subject in a new way to intensify it. A photo is able to capture a moment that people can’t always see. Wanting to see more makes you grow as a person, and growing makes you want to show more of life around you. In each exploration or concern for the subject, I continue in the area for a great length of time, sometimes a couple of years. Working this way has been the result of my doing the photo series or groups. Many things I can’t return to and many things I return to come out better.
I photograph continuously, often without good ideas or strong feelings. During this time the photos are nearly all poor but I believe they develop my seeing and help later on in other photos. I do believe strongly in photography and hope by following it intuitively that when the photographs are looked at they will touch the spirit in people.”
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