Collage
c. 1956
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 19.4 x 24.5 cm (7 5/8 x 9 5/8 in.) sheet: 20.2 x 25.2 cm (7 15/16 x 9 15/16 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ann Solomon
Accession Number
2002.148.19
Art Historical Context
Harry Callahan's *Collage* (c. 1956) exemplifies the innovative spirit of mid-20th-century American photography. A pioneering figure at the Institute of Design in Chicago, pushed the boundaries of the medium beyond documentary realism, embracing abstraction and experimentation. Influenced by the Bauhaus legacy, he often layered images, manipulated light, and created composite forms that blurred the line between photography and collage—techniques vividly at play here in this gelatin silver print. The gelatin silver process, a staple of black-and-white photography from the early 20th century, a...
About the Artist
Harry Callahan
Harry Morey Callahan (1912–1999) was a pioneering American photographer whose self-taught ingenuity transformed everyday scenes into profound visual poetry. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he briefly studied engineering at Michigan State University before working at Chrysler, where he joined the company camera club. In 1938, Callahan took up photography as a hobby, but a 1941 lecture by Ansel Adams ins...