One of the many people famous for changing photography and impacting it greatly, is Harry Callahan. He was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1912 and he grew up in Michigan. Harry Callahan grew up in the suburb of Royal Oak, where he graduated from the public schools.He actually did not major in photography, he studied very much in chemical engineering and business and eventually went to Michigan State University in Lansing. He only spent 3 semesters there, he found an interest in photography and left his college. He joined a photography club in 1938 named Chrysler’s Camera and within two years of attending, he joined Detroit’s Photo Guild. From then on, he fell in love with taking pictures and attending many workshops to try and improve his camera skills. He attended Ansel Adam’s photography workshop in 1941 and very soon he had a meeting with Alfred Stieglitz, who also had a huge impact on American black and white photography and inspired Callahan to pursue more of his career in pictures. He was a self-taught as a photographer but, that did not stop him from the work he found in the General Motors Photographic Laboratories. In 1946, shortly after meeting László Moholy-Nagy, he was asked to join the staff of the New Bauhaus in Chicago, where he became chairman of the photography department in 1949. He left Chicago in 1961 to work at the Rhode Island School of Design where he taught for four years 1973. He retired soon after and took pictures for recreational purpose and spent time with his family. He married the woman he met on a blind date in 1933 and they were married for 63 years and had a daughter 14 years after they married. His wife’s name was Eleanor Knapp and their daughter was named Barbara. His favorite subject, was his wife, Eleanor, appears in many of his best photographs. Another common theme with his photos, is that they are pictures of Chicago, Illinois. He passed away in 1999 in Atlanta . He used a 35-millimeter and an 8x10 camera, and worked with multiple exposures as well as straight images. He has won many awards for his photography, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972 and the Photographer and Educator Award from the Society for Photographic Education in 1976. He was designated Honored Photographer of the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie in Arles, France in 1977, and received ICP's Master of Photography Infinity Award in 1991. Callahan was widely respected in the photography community for his open mind and experimental attitude.
