Harry Callahan's Mastery: How Size, Scope, and Pathos Transform Photography

Communicating calmness to change the mood of people viewing your photos

A Burmese woman in water communicates enjoyment and happiness. Photo by Matthew Bamberg

Harry Callahan was known to get up daily and walk around the city where he lived (Detroit, Chicago, and Providence, RI), photographing what interested him. Callahan’s wife, Eleanor, posed for many of his photographs. He took the time to include Eleanor in some of his photos wherever he shot. These photos are pretty remarkable.

In the photo “Eleanor,” his wife’s head comes out of the water, long hair wet, with ends swirling among small waves, reflection muted down into the frame. The photo above of a woman in the water captures a similar sensation.

In another, she stands in front of a building (which is soft in the background) on the left-third side of the frame with three windows from the building around her, two on top and one to the left. It’s as if she were the missing window. Callahan’s landscapes taken in the 1970s are sweeping vistas where Eleanor and his daughter, Barbara, sometimes were seen a…