Cape Cod
1972
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 21.9 x 21.9 cm (8 5/8 x 8 5/8 in.) sheet: 31.7 x 28 cm (12 1/2 x 11 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Callahan Family
Accession Number
2011.95.27
Art Historical Context
Harry Callahan's *Cape Cod* (1972) captures the essence of the artist's lifelong fascination with the natural world, rendered in a pristine gelatin silver print. This square-format image, measuring 21.9 x 21.9 cm, exemplifies Callahan's modernist approach, honed during his time at the Institute of Design in Chicago and later at the Rhode Island School of Design. By the 1970s, Callahan had turned his lens to coastal landscapes like Cape Cod, abstracting everyday scenes into poetic studies of light, form, and texture. The silver print medium, a hallmark of mid-20th-century photography allowed C...
About the Artist
Harry Callahan
Harry Morey Callahan (1912–1999) was a pioneering American photographer whose self-taught ingenuity transformed everyday scenes into profound visual poetry. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he briefly studied engineering at Michigan State University before working at Chrysler, where he joined the company camera club. In 1938, Callahan took up photography as a hobby, but a 1941 lecture by Ansel Adams ins...