Gitterman Gallery presents “Vibrations of Nature, In-camera Multiple Exposures” by Harry Callahan, Kenneth Josephson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. This exhibition brings together work of the three seminal photographers. Each explored the expressive potential of in-camera multiple exposures to evoke the energy and complexity of nature.
Harry Callahan (1912–1999) was a pioneering figure who taught at the Institute of Design in Chicago (1946–1961) and later at the Rhode Island School of Design (1961–1977). His work has influenced generations of photographers and helped further the art of photography.
Callahan once reflected, “I was doing photography to find something—which is different.” He also explained, “What I have observed is that when a student or a person makes a picture which really surprises you, it is because that person has found something out about himself.”
Kenneth Josephson (b. 1932) studied under Callahan and Aaron Siskind as a graduate student at the Institute of Design (1958–1960) after getting his undergraduate degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he studied under Minor White. After graduating in 1960, Josephson taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago for almost forty years and influenced generations of artists. Josephson was an early figure in conceptual photography. His innovative explorations often used photography to comment on itself and our perception.
Inspired by Callahan’s multiple exposure work and encouraged by the atmosphere of experimentation at the Institute of Design, Josephson titled his graduate thesis An Exploration of the Multiple Image. He cited that the harmonic polyphony in music and streams of consciousness in literature excited him to the possibilities of expression with “…multiple images on a single sheet of film exposed within the camera.” He sought to expand “the expressive vocabulary of photography.” Though he utilized some of Callahan’s techniques of camera position movement, Josephson also made exposures with varying degrees of focus while maintaining a fixed film- plane, creating ethereal images that seem to reveal dimensions beyond human sight. This exhibition features four rare vintage prints from this early period of his career (1959–1961).
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925–1972) was an optometrist and an artist. Initially working in Chicago, Meatyard moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he became involved with the Lexington Camera Club. There, he was mentored by photographer (and later curator) Van Deren Coke who introduced Meatyard to the concept that “the camera sees even beyond the visual consciousness.” In 1956, Coke encouraged him to attend a two-week photography seminar organized by Henry Holmes Smith at Indiana University. Meatyard found inspiration in the work and ideas of the presenters, Smith and Aaron Siskind and especially Minor White, who introduced him to Zen philosophy.
Meatyard’s growing engagement with Zen merged with his knowledge of optometry and optics, and shaped much of his work, notably the series No-Focus, Light on Water, Zen Twigs, and Motion-Sound. It is noteworthy that Meatyard had expertise in strabismus, a condition that can cause double vision, when considering his Motion-Sound series, which involves horizontal, vertical, or circular camera movements between exposures on the same negative.
In the forward of Ralph Eugene Meatyard: A Fourfold Vision (Nazraeli Press, 2005), photographer Emmet Gowin recalls meeting Meatyard in 1968 and being introduced to the Motion-Sound series: “…Gene instructed me that it would be more useful to think in terms of Vibration, or Visible Sound.” Gowin later reflected, “Everything in these photographs reminds us that all of nature depends on its proper pulse.”
Vibrations of Nature
In-camera Multiple Exposures by
Harry Callahan, Kenneth Josephson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Until November 1, 2025
Gitterman Gallery
3 E 66th St.
New York, NY 10065
www.gittermangallery.com
