Eleanor, Chicago

In 1946, Harry Callahan was hired to teach at Chicago's Institute of Design (the so-called New Bauhaus) by László Moholy-Nagy, who was then the school's director. Self-taught as a photographer, Callahan found the camera the ideal tool for artistic experimentation and regularly used it to record aspects of his private life. His wife Eleanor was his favorite subject for more than fifteen years. He sometimes photographed her from a great distance and other times at extremely close range, as in this starkly unsentimental study in white. Eleanor's arms raised above her head hide her dark hair and form a pale frame around her face, giving her a slightly startled and strangely androgynous appearance.