In defense of camera clubs and PSA: a look at the work of Harry Callahan - Photographic Society of America

PSA Journal, August, 1997 by Max Perchick

Harry Callahan is considered to be one of the most accomplished and influential American photographers. He is recognized for his unconventional ways of looking at and presenting the world around him. He did not pursue the photography of dramatic landscapes, famous people, or unusual scenes. Instead, he concentrated on nearby street scenes, landscapes, nature, and most particularly, his wife and his daughter. His primary objective was to be "different."

His contribution to twentieth century photography was examined in a "retrospective" presenting some 120 images of the past 50 years, and was on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1996. The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and is on tour.

Callahan was the son of a midwestern farmer who moved to Detroit to find work in the automobile factories. Callahan attended, but did not complete, Michigan State University. He worked for the Chrysler Corporation, where he joined the company's camera club. He later worked at General Motors in Detroit.

He did not pursue any formal photographic education. He learned photography from a variety of sources: friends, colleagues, mentors and from his own experiments with various aspects of photography.

In 1946 he joined the faculty of Chicago's Institute of Design. He later left Chicago to become chairman of the photography department at the Rhode Island School of Design. Thus, he became known as a teacher as well as a photographer.

Also, his work was the subject of numerous exhibitions and publications.

His membership in the Chrysler Camera Club and later in the Detroit Photo Guild, he felt, was limiting and frustrating. He felt then, as he does today, that camera clubs produce photography that is labored, analytical, rule bound, expressing ideas of the pictorialism of the past. His reaction to camera clubs has been strongly negative.

After viewing the Callahan exhibit, I suspect that Callahan's involvement with camera clubs provided him with far more benefits and positives than Callahan has acknowledged. For example, we must note that it was through the efforts of the Detroit Photo Guild that Callahan first became aware of Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz. In the 1930s and 1940s, Ansel Adams traveled extensively to promote his views of photography. In 1941, Adams conducted a workshop at the Detroit Photo Guild, which Callahan attended. Adams showed examples of his work and also spoke of the importance of Alfred Stieglitz. The exposure to both Ansel Adams and Alfred Stieglitz through the Detroit Photo Guild proved to be a momentous turning point in the photographic career of Callahan, and he left the Detroit Photo Guild shortly thereafter.

There are certain typical camera club activities which, to my mind, are reflected in many of the works of Harry Callahan. Camera club members learn not only from each other but also from guest speakers (such as Adams), "outside" judges (invited from nearby geographic areas to provide objectivity) and from periodic competitions, not only within the club (members competing against one another) but also in camera club chapter, council, regional and international competitions.

Not all photography of camera clubs is good, but not all is "not so good." Guest speakers provide differing points of view. Guest judges provide varying judgements. Members must be aware of such variations of viewpoints, reject that with which they do not agree, and accept and explore that with which they do agree. It's a selective process -- a basic philosophy which must be applied to art and many other choices in life. Condemning all camera clubs is as fallacious as praising all camera clubs.

Callahan's complaints about camera clubs are vague. However, we can conjecture what Callahan may have learned from camera clubs, without his being consciously aware of their contribution to his progress in photography. Many beginners in photography, who belong to camera clubs, seem to pass through classic photographic phases in their desire to create something new (to them), something different. Callahan's work suggests that he, too, passed through some of these same phases, observed at camera club.

For example, Callahan took a number of photographs of reflections and multiple exposures. An example is his "Self Portrait, New York, 1942" which shows his reflection through a window. Reflections and multiple exposures are not only common techniques in camera clubs but are favorite subjects in "assigned subject" competitions. Thus, there is nothing new or innovative in Callahan's extensive use of these techniques, unless they were new in 1941.

The use of camera movement during exposure is also a common technique explored in camera clubs. His photographs of neon lights at night with camera movement during exposure, and of windows and patterns, are additional examples of what Callahan had in common with camera clubs. Perhaps he was not aware or conscious of these similarities.

Callahan strongly objected to camera clubs' "highly manipulated images." Yet his own photographs involving multiple exposures, reflections, neon lights, camera movement during exposure and other "different" techniques are all "manipulated" photography -- not to mention the usual manipulations that take place in the darkroom.