Eleanor, Indiana 1948

Harry Callahan made this gelatin silver print, titled Eleanor, Indiana, at an unknown date. The world is rendered in shades of grey. Callahan has found a way to flatten the image to make it feel both deep and shallow, like the space in a painting. Look how he uses the water in the foreground to set off the dunes. And then, there’s that tiny figure of Eleanor, his wife. She is so small against the landscape. It makes me think about how we’re all just tiny figures in the face of something larger. The silvery quality of the print reminds me a bit of some of the landscapes made by the painter Gerhard Richter. Both artists find ways to make the world look familiar and strange at the same time. In the end, this picture embraces ambiguity, and multiple interpretations. Callahan isn't interested in the definitive, he’s searching for something in between.