Harry Callahan

Harry Callahan (1912–1999) was one of the great innovators of twentieth century American photography. He began his career by joining the camera club at Chrysler Motors in 1938. Inspired by Ansel Adams, whom he met in 1941, Callahan improved his technique and swiftly developed an artistic voice. In 1946, he was hired by László Moholy-Nagy to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago. In 1961, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island and taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, retiring in 1977. He established his reputation with black and white materials, but also fully explored color photography, especially from the late 1960s onwards. Callahan’s work was widely published and exhibited during his lifetime, and was the subject of a major retrospective at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, in 1996.