Vibrations of Nature: In-camera Multiple Exposures

This exhibition brings together work of three seminal photographers: Harry Callahan, Kenneth Josephson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. 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.

Included in the exhibition are two innovative works:

• Royal Oak, Michigan (1945), made by moving the camera horizontally between exposures on the same negative of a willow tree.
• Multiple Exposure Tree, Chicago (1956), made by rotating the camera in a circular motion between exposures of on the same negative.

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.

Meatyard began his Motion-Sound series in 1967, the same year he met Thomas Merton, the Trappist Monk, writer, poet, theologian, and activist. Merton, known for his advocacy of interfaith dialogue and Eastern philosophies, including Zen, became a close friend of Meatyard until Merton’s untimely death in December 1968.

In 1967, Meatyard also met writer and environmentalist Wendell Berry and began collaborating on a project on the Red River Gorge, which resulted in the publication of The Unforeseen Wilderness in 1971. Another literary friend of Meatyard’s, Guy Davenport, refereed to the Red River Gorge as a “primeval forest” and which was also the place where Meatyard’s ashes were scattered after his death from cancer in 1972.

The exhibition features a 15-print sequence from the Motion-Sound series titled Common Open Spaces and Footpath Preservation Society (1969). Meatyard was introduced to sequencing by Minor White and intuitively understood the importance of narrative in images. The title is nonsensical and thus encourages the viewer to use their imagination to interpret the meaning of the work. Though made during the time Meatyard was photographing in the Red River Gorge, it is unclear if these images were made there as well. They are dark and haunting and vibrate with energy even though the photographs were made late in the year when much of the foliage had died.

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.”

For the finest overview of Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s artistic career, I highly recommend Barbara Tannenbaum’s Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary (Akron Art Museum/Rizzoli, 1991). Additionally, Cynthia Young’s interview with Guy Davenport in Ralph Eugene Meatyard (International Center of Photography/Steidl, 2004) has great first-hand accounts of Meatyard. Also, Emmet Gowin’s introduction in Ralph Eugene Meatyard: A Fourfold Vision (Nazraeli Press, 2005), provides a personal perspective by a great artist on the Motion-Sound series. For a wonderful dive into some of Meatyard’s other work, I highly recommend Episode 33 of The Expert Eye podcast, Twist Endings by Aimee Pflieger. I will forever remain grateful to James Rhem whose collegiality and his scholarly work on Meatyard (Ralph Eugene Meatyard: The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater and Other Figurative Photographs, DAP 2002 and Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Nathan, Collection Photo Poche, 2000) has contributed significantly to the understanding of one of my favorite artists.