Harry Callahan American, 1912-1999

Harry Callahan (b.1912-1999) was born in Detroit, Michigan, and studied engineering at Michigan State University. He worked for Chrysler before taking up photography as a hobby in 1938. Although Callahan was never formally trained in photography, he found work at the General Motors Photographic Laboratories. His work consists of documentary and formalist styles using both black-and-white and colored photography. A large majority of Callahan’s photographs focus on natural landscapes, cityscapes, people, and his wife and daughter, Eleanor and Barbara.

After befriending artist Ansel Adams at his local camera club in 1941, Callahan’s interest in photography started developing into a profession. Shortly after meeting László Moholy-Nagy, Callahan was asked to join the faculty of the New Bauhaus (later renamed the Institute of Design) in Chicago. Later, in 1949, he became the chairman of the Department of Photography. In 1961, Harry Callahan left Chicago to head the photography department at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he remained until 1973. 

Callahan would later be the first photographer to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. He has won many awards for his photography, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972 and the Photographer and Educator Award from the Society for Photographic Education in 1976. He would then be designated Honored Photographer of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France, in 1977. Callahan also received the ICP’s Master of Photography Infinity Award in 1991; in 1997, he received the National Medal of the Arts award.

Harry Callahan retired from RISD in 1977 and passed away on March 15, 1999, in Atlanta, GA. He left behind an extensive collection of negatives and prints in collections at prestigious institutions worldwide.