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Untitled (C.S.)

Creator

American Photographer · 1940–present

Artist

> Although my work outwardly seems to vary over many years, there are certain links running through all of it. I consistently want to make things that satisfy my sense of beauty. I respond to the tactile nature of things. Another element that pervades it is tension or anxiety. These elements always live within me and are present in all my art. > > --Jo Ann Callis Since she emerged in the late 1970

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Date: 2000
Medium: Iris print
Culture: American
Department: Photographs
Institution: Getty Museum

Around the year 2000 Callis's concern with photographing the heads of infants led her back to an early interest in painting. She tackled larger-than-life canvases, working in a hyperrealistic manner; at the same time, she explored inkjet (digital) printing as she worked on this new subject matter. With oil paint she attempted to re-create the look of perfect newborn skin. After scanning her negatives for digital printing, she manipulated the volume of the small heads, the color of eyes, and the peculiarities of undeveloped human characteristics. Isolating the infants' heads from their bodies also encouraged an alien appearance, not inappropriate for new beings whose lack of sophisticated communication makes us wonder just what they are thinking.

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