Lakefront Fence

Photography and Media

c. 1947

Harry Callahan
American, 1912–1999

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.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Photography and Media

Artist: Harry Callahan
Title: Lakefront Fence
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1942–1952
Medium: Gelatin silver print
Inscriptions: No markings recto or verso
Dimensions: Image/paper: 27.3 × 26.7 cm (10 3/4 × 10 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by Anstiss and Ronald Krueck in honor of Sylvia Wolf
Reference Number: 1999.315

Travis, David and Elizabeth Siegel. 2002. “Taken by Design: Photographs from the Institute of Design, 1937–1971,” Exh. cat. Art Institute of Chicago/University of Chicago Press. p. 92, cat. 20, pl. 55.
Siegel, Elizabeth. 2003. “Untitled,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 29 (2). pp. 44–5.
Matthew S. Witkovsky et al., “The Art Institute of Chicago Field Guide to Photography and Media,” eds. Antawan I. Byrd, Elizabeth Siegel, and Carl Fuldner, pl. 9, p. 38 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2023).

Art Institute of Chicago, “Taken by Design: Photographs from The Institute of Design, 1937–1971,” March 2–May 12, 2002; traveled to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 20–October 20, 2002; and Philadelphia Museum of Art, December 7, 2002–March 2, 2003. (David Travis and Elizabeth Siegel)
Tucson, Arizona, Center for Creative Photography, “Harry Callahan: The Photographer at Work,” January 27–May 7, 2006; traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, June 24–September 24, 2006.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 10 Permanent Collection Rotation, August 2011–April 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 10 Permanent Collection Rotation #14, May 12-October 28, 2018.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Field Guide to Photography and Media,” Nov. 10, 2022–Apr. 10, 2023.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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