I hadn't heard of Harry Callahan before this small exhibition of his work at Tate Modern. The exhibit was divided into street scenes, urban and rural landscapes and portraits of his wife Eleanor.
The rural landscapes were interesting, one in particular (labelled Detroit but presumably in the city periphery) of a road and telegraph poles from a foreground of a pool or swamp was great but felt very intense due to its small size. The detail and density of the image was overwhelming.
The street photography was okay but no great shakes. There seemed to be a few experiments with double exposure or composition on the photography paper. The best of these was the pensive face of a woman, perhaps waiting at a crossing, superimposed on the window of a shop with shoppers bustling up and down in front of it. I felt like it captured the tension of when shopping shifts from leisure to chore.
The urban photography was the section I liked the most with a very bright saturated look at cities like Chicago that made them look like the Mediterranean. However the picture that I liked the most was a picture of two men standing outside a gaudy burlesque club. The are almost symmetrical, leaning in towards one another but both looking in the same direction down the street at something happening outside the frame. The natural posture of their relaxed waiting contrasts with the busy decoration of the venue and its contrived spelling, there's an innocence that contrasts with the vice.