Nature

"Callahan did somehow arrive quickly at the sure knowledge that the function of his own work was to describe not the public issues of the great world, but the interior shape of his private experience." John Szarkowski
Nature is a selection of Harry Callahan's nature studies, 12 intimately scaled prints that the artist assembled into a series in the early 1990s, herein reproduced as beautiful tipped-in plates. Over the course of a career that spanned six decades, Callahan made nature of one his foremost themes, and continually researched new ways of seeing trees, weeds, snow and surf. Ranging in date from 1941 to 1991, these images are typical of the artist's innovative approach to these subjects, as well as of his intention to "capture a moment that people can't always see." Some images give a striking description of surface detail on natural forms, while others reduce those forms to compelling abstract patterns. Consistent throughout the series is the technical refinement that distinguishes Callahan's style and that has secured his place among the foremost American photographers of the twentieth century.