Multiple Exposure Trees 1945

Harry Callahan made this layered photograph ‘Multiple Exposure Trees’ using photographic paper and a camera; the artist, like a painter, has created an image through a layering process. Callahan has built this image from the ground up, like scaffolding. I can imagine him in the darkroom, shifting, re-exposing, and intuitively building an image out of simple forms, the branches of trees. The image brings to mind Cy Twombly's nervous, scribbled drawings, or even the work of some of the abstract expressionist painters. There is a quality of gesture here which speaks to a bigger conversation across art forms. It makes you think about how artists are always in dialogue, borrowing and building upon one another's ideas across different mediums. It suggests a shared artistic journey, a common pursuit of capturing something elusive. Like a feeling.