HAROLD ALLEN
PHOTOGRAPHS
by LYNNE WARREN
In his accompanying statement to the Harold Allen/Jane Wenger exhibition of photographs at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, Harold Allen somewhat apologetically writes: “Jane Wenger’s striking photographs are shown in this exhibit along with my tamer ones.” Indeed. Jane Wenger’s powerful series of a nude man line two walls of the Center, a continuation of her work that depicts a sort of cosmic struggle of human flesh against the forces of nature. Yes, Wenger’s photographs may be more “striking” and dramatic—certainly more obvious as to what they are about, and Allen’s might be “tamer,” but tame in a positive sense, tame as in “civilized.”
Although many of Allen’s photographs are rustic, small-town images or breathtaking landscapes, they all have a sophisticated, urbane presence and show a subtle wit and sense of humor. Many are ironic, as Subway (La Salle Street “Stop,” Dearborn Line), a deserted subway station photographed in the same manner as the interior of a magnificent Gothic cathedral; or as in Mounted Cougar, San Juan Bautista, California, which shows a snarling cougar with blazing eyes that is in reality stuffed and mounted ignominiously above a doorway of what appears to be a rickety tool shed. Some images are gently humorous, as in Marble Dog, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Watertown, Massachusetts, which is a grave statue of a rather dim-looking hound laying as if by Master’s fireside with the inscription “18 Years” just above his faithful head; or Picasso Poster in Subway, Chicago, that juxtaposes a pristine poster announcing a Picasso exhibition at the Art Institute against the water-stained walls (abstract paintings in their own right) and a marred “Washington Station” sign.
Harold Allen, who lives in Chicago and taught for many years at the School of the Art Institute (he recently retired) showed twenty-one black and white photographs, all taken with a 4 x 5 view camera. The images seemed to represent a selection of best-loved prints from his career; some of the prints dated from as long ago as 1945. Yet there was an extraordinary continuity in the group. There were no prints that said, “early work” and none that said “recent”—quite astonishing considering their 30-year span. One of the more engaging things about Allen’s work is that although he almost never shows a human being (none in this particular show), his images teem with “signs of life.” Statues—of both humans and animals—signs, murals, dolls, icons abound.
There are even more subtle signs of life, as in the beautiful print Honeymoon Lake, Alberta, Canada, where the reflection of mountains in the lake seems more solid and “real” than the actual mountains thrust against the misty sky, a reminder that the natural world is not inexorable, that often it is how we humans choose to see it. Here, as in all Allen’s photographs, the camera is not a scientific instrument dispassionately capturing the world, as is so in much work in the 4 x 5 format; it is a very manipulated, emotional eye that sees the world in human terms, yet never passes judgment. This is the strength and joy of Allen’s art.
As Allen said in the introductory statement, he works only with a 4 x 5 camera; he photographs only “big inanimate things;” he uses existing light; he restricts himself to black and white. The courage that it takes to deliberately restrict one’s options, to try to remain creative within tight boundaries is not often recognized. It certainly should be, however, especially here in Allen’s case. And it should be commended, as he has been able to remain true to his principles and be creative over so many years and exposure to wide-ranging and often very innovative work while teaching at SAIC. Harold Allen obviously found what he wanted to capture in his art very early and has been refining, honing, and distilling ever since to produce a very sensitive and beautiful body of work.
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