Elemental Landscapes: Photographs by Harry Callahan

Harry Callahan, who grew up in a rural area near Detroit, Michigan, had a powerful attraction to his home landscape. He turned his camera to fields and open spaces, photographing the continuities rather than the dramatic features of this landscape. He liked to bring the camera close in a way that removed a scene from its relation to earth and sky. These abstractions challenge notions of landscape by presenting a small slice of the world in infinite detail. The artist’s scrutiny of unexceptional places is full of wonder. Callahan took many of his photographs within proximity of one another and the exhibition explores his interest in these variations. Though each photograph is a work of art in itself, many of the works in the exhibition will be shown in the context of related images taken around the same time.

Also known for his dynamic urban views, photographs of his wife Eleanor, and extensive color work, Callahan enjoyed a distinguished career as a teacher. In 1946, he joined the faculty at Chicago’s Institute of Design. He was invited in 1961 to found and direct a graduate program in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where he worked until retirement in 1977. One of the most important post-war instructors in photography, Callahan taught some of the best talents in the medium today, including Linda Connor, Emmet Gowin, and Ray K. Metzker.