5/14/2017
Art 104
Final Paper
Harry Callahan (1912-1999)
Henry Callahan was born in Michigan in 1912. His parents were farmers who moved to royal Oak, suburb of Detroit, where they had employment with the automotive industry. Callahan attending public school and went on to engineering school at Michigan State College. He attended three semesters there in 1933. He then left college to obtain a job at Chrysler as a shipping clerk, the year he became a shipping clerk he also meets his future wife Eleanor. Eleanor was one of his great evens in his life.
Harry Callahan had purchased a Rolleicord still camera after seeing a movie camera that was too expensive for him. Callahan began photography as a hobby when he joined the camera club at Chrysler. He also joined the Detroit photo guild later. Callahan had no prior experience with taking pictures or any training. “He Felt that that he had fresh eyes because he didn’t have any training” (1) He attended a training seminar by Ansel Adams in 1941 at the Detroit photo guild he was a member of. This seminar that Ansel Adams held was a turning point in Callahan’s life, because Adams had shown the works of Alfred Stieglitz also. Callahan was so impressed by what Adams had shown that he left the Detroit club and moved on with his own …show more content…
In 1942 Harry Callahan meet Alfred Stieglitz, however it was not until 1946 that Callahan showed his work to Stieglitz. Callahan was so impressed after seeing pictures of Stieglitz wife that he started to photograph his wife, Eleanor and his Daughter Barbara. The pictures were very intimate. “Callahan’s most admired portrait was called “Eleanor, Chicago” (about 1953)” (1) Callahan did a “series of abstract water photographs. During this period, He took some of his most enduring pictures, held his first exhibit, and saw his first photographs displayed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York”