"The difference between the casual impression and the intensified image is about as great as that separating the average business letter from a poem. If you choose your subject selectively - intensively - the camera can write poetry." Harry Callahan, 1964
Born in Detroit in 1912, Harry Callahan was one of the 20th century's most influential photographers. A member of the Bauhaus school, Harry Callahan was inspired by the works of Ansel Adams at the beginning of his career. In 1946, he joined the faculty of the Institute of Design in Chicago, where the Bauhaus ideal of Moholy-Nagy was taught. Callahan's own artistic beliefs were suited perfectly to the institute's philosophy of uniting art, industry, and technology.
Callahan consistently explored new ways of looking at the world around him. From high-contrast photographs of trees silhouetted against the snow to minimal abstractions, these images reveal his relationships to the world around him. A dedicated student of the photographic medium, he consistently returned to particular ideas to continue his investigation of them, conducting technical experiments over years.