Eleanor

Harry Callahan

1950s · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

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.

Artist

Harry Callahan

Date

1950s

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1987