Lakefront Fence

Harry Callahan made this photograph shortly after he moved from his hometown of Detroit to Chicago to teach at the famed Institute of Design (ID). Callahan, along with Aaron Siskind, significantly advanced the school’s experimental approach to photography, establishing it as one of the most important photographic education programs in 20th-century America. Callahan's aesthetic of formal exploration fused with personal subjectivity meshed perfectly with the school's priorities. This image, which resembles a woodblock print more than a photograph, is something of a puzzle.The subject of this scene—Lake Michigan, viewed through steel piles, with wooden posts in the water farther away—is abstracted due to the use of a telephoto lens and high-contrast printing. This early image is emblematic of the approach Callahan had developed in Detroit and was now using explore his new environs.