Grasses in Snow, Detroit
Photograph
Grasses in Snow, Detroit
Grasses in snow, Detroit
Weeds in Snow, Detroit
1943
Gelatin silver print
Image/Overall: 23.1 x 31.8 cm
Purchase
1981.1131.0023
Inscriptions verso-(handwritten in pencil) "Callahan-Grasses in snow, Detroit,
about 1942"
about 1942"
TextAlmost entirely self-taught, Harry Callahan began experimenting with photography by focusing his lens on ordinary objects—grass, leaves, weeds, water—around his home in the rural outskirts of Detroit, Michigan. He was interested in prolonging one’s gaze on these objects in order to intensify the “technique of seeing” and reveal new perspectives on the natural world. While Callahan credited a workshop with Ansel Adams in 1941 as one of his key influences, he diverged from more traditional landscape photography by removing his subjects from a recognizable context. Instead, he emphasized the purity of form in this calligraphic composition that belies his interest in Zen Buddhist drawing. Callahan would go on to have an influential career alongside friend and colleague Aaron Siskind as an educator in the photography departments of the Institute of Design in Chicago and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
Lisa Hostetler, Ph.D.
Curator in Charge, Department of Photography
Label for A History of Photography [Rotation 1]
May 9–September 28, 2014
