Discussing a Harry Callahan Photograph

[tim atherton]

I love Callahan's work. He seems to have tried absolutely everything, including photographing Eleanor with a telephone pole "growing" from her head, breaking, one of the zillions of camera club no-no's that must have delighted him to do. And as to emulating his work, check out Rolfe Horn's nearly identical image of same toned beach and sky with a tiny sliver of dark ocean in the middle...it's almost plagerism. As to the posted image above, it's one of my all time favoritesof his that I would have little compunction against plagerizing...if I could


(here's a link to the Horn 'graph. I can't find the Callahan original on line

http://www.f45.com/html/japan/12.html

small



and not a very good version (there's a couple of different ones) of it, but:



or

[Sparky]

The Callahan is a really naive image I think. But for that, it's SOOO lovely! I think it's a documentary photograph. He's simply documenting the 'feel' of a particularly nice scene. It's photography at it's most 'zen' perhaps. Without any authorial pretension.

[Daniel Grenier]

[QUOTE=Jim Chinn]..... If I could buy one image from a well known photographer this would be the one, Trees, Lake Michigan, 1950
QUOTE]

I, too, rate this image as one of my all time favorites and would love to have it on my walls. The deep black trees, the pure white snow, the gray sky. Simple, yet very powerful and deeply emotional.

I love this picture.

[BWGirl]

Well, to show you how un-schooled I am... the only Harry Callahan I know of is "Dirty Harry"...you know... "go ahead...make my day." :rolleyes:

Having said that, I love that print you posted, Jim. I'll have to look for more of them. The one you posted reminds me a lot of my favorite Tim Rudman shot... "Two and a half trees". Gorgeous.

[naturephoto1]

I also like the posted Callahan photo.

Rich

[Jim Chinn]

I love Callahan's work. He seems to have tried absolutely everything, including photographing Eleanor with a telephone pole "growing" from her head, breaking, one of the zillions of camera club no-no's that must have delighted him to do. And as to emulating his work, check out Rolfe Horn's nearly identical image of same toned beach and sky with a tiny sliver of dark ocean in the middle...it's almost plagerism. As to the posted image above, it's one of my all time favoritesof his that I would have little compunction against plagerizing...if I could

In the earlier comprehensive book of his photography titled Harry Callahan
the story is related how he and a friend would purposely break all the "rules" of composition in thier photographs just to rile up the Detroit Camera club crowd.

[copake_ham]

Photos like this one by Callahan (taken 1950) always depress me. They make me feel as if all of the "good shots" have already been taken so - why bother? I was born in 1951. Jeez, before I was born one of the best wintertime shots had already been taken!

With a house in Copake, New York where the winter is five months long - I've come to "appreciate" winter scenes. This guy sets a very high bar to hurdle!

BTW: I particularly like the symettry of this shot - it both follows the "rule of thirds" while being centered! And the "crowns" of the trees are "lace-like" (but "negatives" - i.e. black) and wonderfully stand out against the wintertime white/grey sky. This is a "classic" monochrome shot.

I have to think that Callahan looked long and hard to find the particular "arrangement" of the trees. And I also think he had to have had extreme patience and presence of mind NOT to go stamping about "examining" them - and thus leaving footprints in the snow!

Then again, maybe he had an early version of PS and "cloned out" the footprints? After all the original Univac computer was "invented" around 1948 or so!

[reellis67]

The aesthetics of this photograph are very strong. There is great depth and feeling of place and the tone of the print really adds to that feeling. This is a photograph that I don't feel inclined to look for form in, but rather just take in the feeling of it.

Thanks also for posting the woman and the lamp post photograph along with the significance of it - very interesting. That's a good example of a time when understanding the backstory of a photograph helps in understanding it.

- Randy