The American photographer Harry Callahan often used his camera to crop the great expanses of nature into ever smaller and more abstract images. His 1970s view of Cape Cod exhibits this tendancy toward almost complete abstraction. With its square format and perfect balance between the expanse of glowing sky above and the rippled stretch of sand below, the image is stunning in its minimalism. Callahan had been drawn to photograph water for many years, especially at its edges and shorelines-first on Lake Huron and Lake Michigan and then during summers on Cape Cod. His goal was to capture in the most essential and economic way possible the subtle shifts of light and atmosphere at these ephemeral intersections where the sky ends and the earth and water begin.

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