Harry Callahan
American, 1912–1999
Lakefront Fence
INV-1526
Harry Callahan
American, 1912–1999c. 1947
Lakefront Fence
Harry Callahan American, 1912–1999 →gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) prphotographic process
Date
c. 1947
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/paper: 27.3 × 26.7 cm (10 3/4 × 10 9/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Anstiss and Ronald Krueck in honor of Sylvia Wolf
Harry Callahan made this photograph shortly after he moved from his hometown of Detroit to Chicago to teach at the famed Institute of Design (ID). Callahan, along with Aaron Siskind, significantly advanced the school’s experimental approach to photography, establishing it as one of the most important photographic education programs in 20th-century America. Callahan's aesthetic of formal exploration fused with personal subjectivity meshed perfectly with the school's priorities. This image, which resembles a woodblock print more than a photograph, is something of a puzzle.The subject of this scene—Lake Michigan, viewed through steel piles, with wooden posts in the water farther away—is abstracted due to the use of a telephoto lens and high-contrast printing. This early image is emblematic of the approach Callahan had developed in Detroit and was now using explore his new environs.
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