Skyscrapers, New York Possibly 1978 - 1979

Harry Callahan made this photographic print, "Skyscrapers, New York," using dye transfer. There's something about the layering of the buildings, the way they're not quite parallel, that feels very human, very process-oriented. I'm really drawn to the materiality here, even though it’s a photograph. Look at how the light hits the buildings – that soft, almost painterly quality. You can see a whole history of mark-making in the facades. Notice the building on the right, how the brickwork shifts in color, almost like a de Kooning. The way the light reveals the textures, the aging of the materials, it’s like a cityscape built up over time through gesture and color. Callahan’s photos share some of the qualities we see in the work of someone like Bernd and Hilla Becher. But in contrast to their very formal approach, there is something more emotional and subjective in Callahan's vision of the urban landscape. His work reminds us that even in photography, it's all about how you see, and how you feel.