Harry Callahan (1912-1999) began photographing as an untrained amateur in 1938 while working for the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation. After attending a lecture and workshop by Ansel Adams in 1941, and a meeting with Alfred Stieglitz in 1942, Callahan decided to devote his energies to photography. In 1946, Callahan’s talent was noticed by the Museum of Modern Art for his first exhibition and soon he was invited to teach at the Institute of Design in Chicago (formerly known as the New Bauhaus) by Laszlo Moholoy-Nagy. After 15 years in Chicago, he moved to the Rhode Island School of Design to establish the photography department where he would remain until his retirement in 1977. Callahan’s work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions at institutions such as Museum of Modern Art, New York, Centre Pompidou, Paris, National Gallery of Art, Washington and Center for Creative Photography, Arizona. Additionally, Callahan is included in significant museums worldwide, such as Art Institute of Chicago, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen and Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, among others.
