“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”
~ Harry Callahan
This is probably the most beautiful photograph ever taken in Chicago, a dynamic city I truly love not just because of its energy and architectural splendor but because of the warmth and friendliness of its population. Harry loved nature and relished being outdoors. On the surface it is some trees in a snowy landscape along Lake Shore Drive with water in the background shrouded in mist. It is a great example of his use of line and contrast. All the details of the tree’s bark and the snow were visible in this negative but it was his skills in the darkroom in the way he deliberately printed it with high contrast to emphasize the graphic simplicity of the scene that makes it so special and unique.
As John Szarkowski, one of the greatest and most articulate of photography curators said of him, “In spite of the fact that Callahan has worked with a wide range of techniques and equipment and has pushed his favorite motifs in several countries his work is informed by a rare integrity, a coherence created by the intensity and logic of his search for pictorial clarity”.
