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Eleanor and Barbara, Chicago

Harry Callahan  (American, 1912–1999)

Date:
1954, printed 1970s
Medium:
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
22.8 x 22.1 cm (9 x 8 11/16 in.)
Classification:
Photographs
Credit Line:
Gift of Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1993
Accession Number:
1993.469.2
Rights and Reproduction:
© The Estate of Harry Callahan; Courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York
  • Description

    Muses throughout his career, Callahan’s wife and daughter played, posed, and aged before his lens. With their attention to the physicality of light, however, Callahan’s photographs transcend mere family portraiture by calling attention to the simple beauty of life’s fleeting moments. "He just liked to take the pictures of me," Eleanor recalled in her nineties. "In every pose. Rain or shine. And whatever I was doing. If I was doing the dishes or if I was half asleep. And he knew that I never, never said no. I was always there for him. Because I knew that Harry would only do the right thing."
    Eleanor Callahan died in February 2012 at the age of ninety-five.

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Inscription: Signed in pencil in the margin, recto LR: "Harry Callahan"; inscribed in pencil, verso UC: "SLP"

  • Provenance

    Joyce and Robert Menschel

190018762

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