The big picture: Eleanor and Barbara, by Harry Callahan

The tiny figures in these photographs, almost unidentifiable, are photographer Harry Callahan’s wife, Eleanor, and daughter, Barbara. Using a large format camera, he would place them at the centre of carefully composed landscapes, taken in and around Chicago in the early 50s. Here they are little points of interest against the city’s skyline, an empty park, an urban street and the horizon on Lake Michigan. → Photograph: Harry Callahan, V&A

Without the people, these would be spare, architectural images. Callahan’s work had developed a strong sense of precision and economy of form since he started teaching photography at Chicago’s Institute of Design in 1946. Established by artist László Moholy-Nagy and dubbed the New Bauhaus, the school advocated the original German move­ment’s deliberate, geometric but elegant style, more often associated with design and architecture. Photography was an important part of the institute’s curriculum and Callahan, who died in 1999, became a key figure in creating a new, simple, modernist language. → Photograph: Harry Callahan, V&A

But with his wife and daughter posing, the shots become more intimate – essentially, highly stylised family snap­shots. Eleanor was the subject of many of Callahan’s pictures. He photographed her everywhere, in many different ways, often experimenting with techniques. Beyond the late 50s, though, he rarely took pictures of either of them. Eleanor went back to work and Barbara, as she grew older, didn’t want to be photo­graphed by her father any more. This quartet forms a mini archive of eight, on show at the V&A’s new Photographs Gallery.→ Photograph: Harry Callahan, V&A

On their own, they are unusual portraits against an interesting backdrop; viewed as part of a series, they take on greater significance. With the same figures anchoring each shot, the landscapes are enhanced, and the effect is like a repeat pattern with a strong sense of design. The human interest has just one disadvantage: you long to see their expressions.
Photograph: Harry Callahan, V&A. All photographs © The Estate of Harry Callahan, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York