Harry Callahan (1912-1999) and Edward Weston (1886-1958) are two of the great American masters of photography. Both developed intense and long careers in which they dealt amply with the nude. The exhibition He, She, It features a selection of eighty pieces that moves away from the topics of erotic photography. Unlike those pieces that seek to induce desire through the image, the work of Weston and Callahan transforms desires into images. Both artists love their models, who are their own wives or lovers. The pictures become an erotic expression filled with subjectivity and affection; hence, the act of shooting the photos is similar to lovemaking, as it entails a connection with the loved one through vision. If one thing characterizes the work of these two artists, it is the complicity between photographer and model. Margrethe, Tina or Charis – in Weston’s images – and Eleonor – in Callahan’s – are more than mere objects of desire: they are unique and irreplaceable women, and their photographs are replete with the dense and complex veil of affection. The sensuality and vitality evidenced in these images is duplicated in portraits of their children or of nature; hence, their other work can be interpreted as an extension of their erotic photography: these also feature the erotic thrust, just that it is sublimated in aesthetic and abstract forms.
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