Harry Morey Callahan was one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century and is best known for utilizing the objectivity of straight photography to produce works that reinvented reality, “to charge it with personal, even mythic, resonance.” (Davis) Harry Callahan discovered photography at the age of 26 and in less than a decade found ways of working, chose photographic subjects, and launched experiments that would continue for the next sixty years. Callahan’s photography is exploratory rather than evolutionary. Curated by Cai Meng, the exhibition "Naturalism and Images of the Mind: Works of the Photography Master Harry Callahan" was unveiled at Cipa Gallery on May 16, 2015 and it will remain on view until June 28, 2015.

Callahan did some of his most ingenious experimentation with the images of Eleanor. It’s impossible to imagine Callahan without Eleanor, his wife. He photographed her repeatedly, indoors and out, nude and clothed, over about 15 years. These images, whose true subject is married love, rank among the most moving photographs ever made. Seen outdoors, Eleanor is a small figure in a large empty landscape, either alone or with the Callahans’ daughter. She never smiles or postures, but is just there and he records her without comment. The nudes are intimate without being sexual. Callahan always respects Eleanor’s privacy. She is completely trusting, perfectly self-confident, and at peace. There is no way that such images could be made without a strong, enduring bond between photographer and subject.

Preface

By Cai Meng

In China, Harry Callahan is one of the Western photography masters whom we are unfamiliar with. To a point that prior to the exhibition “100 original works”, it was difficult to search for any of his information on the internet. If we were not to look at the original photographs of Callahan, but to learn about them through texts, publications or digital images, we would not understand why this critical master is highly respected in the historical development of photography.

My first contact with Harry Callahan’s works was at Fu Yu’s studio party in the summer of 2008. I flipped through a few Callahan’s catalogues Fu Yu had brought back from overseas, while listening to him about his impressions of seeing the original works in the U.S.. And my first time seeing Callahan’s original photographs was in the summer of 2010. In the curatorial process of the exhibition “100 Original Works”, Jin Hongwei had brought part of the collection to China one year prior to the exhibition, and among them, there were 4 photographs by Harry Callahan. In his hotel room, I was in awe with the quality of the photograph. Then, I gave up the idea of making photographs, because I realized that the Callahan’s photographs have set the standard in photography very high.

Since the 2011 “100 Original Works” was held successfully, Mr. Jin’s photography collection exhibitions in China had shown the works of Callahan on separate occasions. It is for this reason, the name “Harry Callahan” became known to China, his “recognition” is inseparable to Jin Hongwei and Fu Yu.

We are presenting over thirty photographs in this exhibition, all of which were acquired by Mr. Jin from the executor of his will, Pace Gallery owner, Peter MacGill, and the rest of the photographs were collected by an art museum in Canada. The original works from Peter’s hands have been shown at the Deichtorhallen Museum in Germany. These works are considered as “vintage prints” were hand processed by Callahan, and many of which were processed with the negatives, thus, they were mostly in small dimensions. Over time, they have been locked away in Callahan’s drawers, without revealing them to others. Because these were works that the artist process with his own hands, reluctant to sell or give to others, thus, the quality of these works are excellent. In fact, many of the photographs have never been shown before.

The “godfather” John Szarkowski once commented on Callahan, “Among the most famous photographers of the 20th century, Harry Callahan is certainly one of the most awesome. His attitude towards his work is serious. His photographs did not threaten us with pain or savage power, or to shower us with the passion of the Mediterranean, or to lure us with sweet language. They only exist in the pure and sophisticated works of art.” It is this nearly extreme “simple and sophisticated” level attained in photography, conjuring the explorations and experiments of his lifetime, allowing Callahan to achieve ultimate success in the field of Western photography.

In my view, Callahan was an “aberration” to his noisy and chaotic time. He quietly stayed at the corner, and pursued photography to an extreme with his solitude and elegance, in order to achieve the meaning and value of a master of photography. His photographs are not immediately appealing, as one approach it, one would realize among the introverted, implicit or even “pure” images, the artist uses tension and confidence in the language of photography to best depict the object he portrayed; within this “best description”, filled with intense, sharp and dynamic details, incorporated within; and these “details” reveals the “images of the mind” through its diverse, complex, enigmatic and elegant presentation from an artistic genius.

Boldness of execution stems from outstanding skills. Using Fu Yu’s words, “Callahan is using a roaring approach flying and surging on a wire in a huge valley.” His works reveal the typical photographic (aesthetic) characteristics, providing a photographic sense of aesthetics, distinguishing those “photographs” that serves to “imitate form”. I believe, as one stands before Callahan’s photographs, even those who have not been trained in photography, would be touched by the encompassing, ambiguous and appealing atmosphere dispersed from his photographs. I think,FengTangzeng’s proposal of “golden line theory” for literature is equally applicable to Callahan’s photographs. He said, “It is different to quantify the standard in literature, however there is a golden line, there are those who have reached it, and those who have not. For the outsider, it’s unclear, for those in it, it is distinct and apparent.” I deeply believe it as our sense of hearing and smell, everyone’s eyes (visual abilities) can be trained, and Callahan’s photographs has undoubtedly provided an reconstruction in our understanding of photographs, that adjusts the “golden line” in viewing photography.

Today, it has been 16 years since Callahan has passed away; I am convinced that he would be joyful and satisfied to have found bosom friends in China.

May 5th, CAFA Library.

About the exhibition

Naturalism and Images of the Mind: Works of the Photography Master Harry Callahan

Artist: Harry Callahan

Curator: Cai Meng

Reception: May 16, 2015 |Sat 3:00pm

Duration: 2015.5.16-6.28

Privatephoto viewing: 2015.5.30 |Sat 3:00—5:00pm

Courtesy of the artist and CIPA Gallery.