Weeds in Snow, Rhode Island c. 1965

Harry Callahan took this photograph, Weeds in Snow, Rhode Island, using black and white film. It’s all about mark making. The weeds emerge tentatively, like thoughts forming. Callahan’s picture reminds me of Cy Twombly’s drawings. You can see the hand moving, a kind of dance across the paper. Each mark seems so deliberate, carefully placed, capturing the fragility of the weeds against the stark whiteness of the snow. I imagine Callahan wandering through a field in Rhode Island, the cold biting at his fingers as he adjusts his camera. Maybe he felt a sense of kinship with these tenacious plants, these weeds, still reaching up towards the sky even in the face of winter. He gives the weeds dignity. It's a reminder that even in the harshest conditions, life finds a way. Painters and photographers, we’re all looking at the same world, just trying to capture it in our own way. And like painting, photography is also about intuition and seeing.