Eleanor and Barbara, Chicago 1953

This is Harry Callahan’s “Eleanor and Barbara, Chicago,” and it's a photograph ––a black and white image, printed on paper. When I look at the image, I think about the history of photography and painting. Callahan’s work makes me think about the work of Walker Evans. Callahan’s photography uses light and shade like a painter mixing and playing with different tones to create depth. I wonder whether he saw the built environment as a ready-made painting. I wonder if he imagined his image, saw it somehow, before he pressed the shutter. I wonder if the image was different from what he expected, or if the image took him by surprise. I look at it, and I’m in this flat, rectilinear space of brick, concrete, and tar. Look at the cobblestones up front, how they're almost right in our face! Callahan creates a space of formal experimentation––a way to bring mother and child together, but also to set them slightly apart. I am constantly inspired by how artists use the work of their peers to inspire their own, continuing a conversation across time and space.