Jo Ann Callis
Not long ago, a friend referred me to an opportunity to interview the amazing Jo Ann Callis. She is receiving yet another award, this time from the Lucie Awards, as an Honoree for Achievement in Fine Art. Of course, I jumped at the chance but immediately struggled a bit with some questions because of my inability to accurately describe what kind of photographer to call her. She seems to shake off any words often used in relation to her work - provocative, surreal, or subversive, among others similar in nature.
It’s like she has this uncanny ability to defy expectations - and isn’t that a great place to be? Being unable to have a label applied to you or your work seems so freeing. I mean, you CAN say that she is any of these things, but then she creates work that doesn’t always follow suit, but you still know that it’s her work and her aesthetic. I absolutely love this about her (as well as being an incredibly gracious person)! She’s cut from a different mold and offers imagery that gives the viewer room to think and move around. She lets them make decisions about what they see and perceive. So once I had some more general questions laid out for her, it also gave her room to move around and tell it like it was. Since she’s an educator of the highest order, on top of her talents as a visual artist, she provides us all with food for thought as we move forward with our own goals.
Jo Ann Callis is an inspiration that we can certainly learn so much from, and I’m honored to have had this blip in time with her to investigate her work and process a little further. Dive into this one, as you will most certainly get some words and thoughts of encouragement from it—my thanks to Jo Ann for her efforts and time.
Bio -
Jo Ann Callis was born in Cincinnati, OH, and relocated to Los Angeles in 1961. She enrolled at UCLA in 1970, where she began taking classes with Robert Heinecken, among other prominent artists. She started teaching at CalArts in 1976 and remains a faculty member of the School of Art’s Program in Photography and Media. She has continued to photograph, draw, and paint, and her work has been widely exhibited in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and many others. In 2009 a retrospective of her work, Woman Twirling, was presented by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Callis has received three NEA Fellowships and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other awards and prizes.
Interview -
Michael Kirchoff: Every photographer experiences that spark that drives them in the direction of image-making. How did you get your start, and what were your early influences?
Jo Ann Callis: I became aware that I loved making art when I was eight years old, but I didn’t learn how to operate a camera until I was at UCLA, taking my first class in photography from Robert Heinecken in 1973. Before that, I was making sculptures, paintings, and collages in school and in my home studio. Heinecken opened up the world of fine art photography that changed my life, and gave my art another direction to pursue. I looked at the work of Hans Belmer, Pierre Molinere, and Paul Outerbridge, who were important early influences. I had never looked at work like this before, and I fell in love with the idea that I could make images that reflected part of my interior life and imagination.
MK: What is the one thing you wish you knew when you started making photographs?
JC: When I first started making photographs, I wish I knew that I would have a long career and therefore I would have been more organized by keeping track of all my photographs and negatives.
MK: Is there anything about your creative process that you feel people miss or are misinformed about?
JC: It is hard to explain what my creative process is. The process of getting ideas is the most important part of the process for me, and it is often elusive. Where do ideas come from? When I am in the creative mode, I try to become especially sensitive and aware of life and relationships around me. I become attuned to visual and intellectual stimuli, and I try to see how my art can reflect those observations and feelings.
MK: So many of your images leave the viewer to make determinations about the subject and context of what is seen. Has this always been the case and your intention all along?
JC: I think there is a fine line between how much I want to reveal and how much I want to leave the interpretation to the viewer. I try to allow the interpretation to be somewhat ambiguous because I think it is more pleasurable for the viewer if the art is neither obvious nor obscure. An open-ended experience is the goal.
MK: Is there another artistic medium that informs your work and process? Music? Film? Literature, perhaps?
JC: I am easily inspired by other art forms such as dance, music, theater production, film, poetry, and really all visual arts that I see in person or online. When I am in a receptive state of mind I think about what I would like to make that will enable me to feel connected to what the other artists are expressing. I experience a thrill when art in any of its forms moves me. That connection makes me feel less alone because it is as if someone else understands what I experience. The mood of a piece is what draws me in, no matter what the medium. Aesthetics and even technique are important too when they contribute to the overall meaning of the work. Everything has to come together to make the art successful.
MK: Once you’ve achieved finding your particular style or voice, do you ever feel the need to break out and follow a different path?
JC: There was not exactly a particular moment or time when I ‘found my voice’ because my art has always reflected my personality and interests at the time it was made. However, in 1973, when I started making photographs, I did feel that photography would allow me to best express myself at a difficult time in my life. When I went from one project to the next over many years, I tried to figure out a way to proceed that would make me feel fulfilled and happy to engage in those new ideas and work out the challenges that making something new would present. Making art is always like an experiment to see how it will turn out. My work can reflect differences depending on when it was made, but underneath the visual differences, I am always drawing upon my own varied interests. My art is a reflection of different aspects of who I am.
MK: Over the years, the tools we use to make photographs have changed in dramatic ways, not to mention the vehicles we use to promote the final works we make. How do you keep up with these changes, and do you see there being any further significant change as lens-based media continues to progress?
JC: The use of digital photography changed a lot of the joy and independence I felt in making my work. I have never been enamored with the technical side of photography, but I am always interested in the final look and feel of something. The digital world has made things much easier in many ways, and I use it to its advantage when it can help me. However, sitting at a computer to make art has never appealed to me. I hire experts to help me with the technical parts of making something look the way I want it to look. I never learned Photoshop, but I found Evans Wittenberg, my printer, to work with me, and together, we can produce what I envision in the most efficient way possible.
In the last twenty years or so, I have also made paintings, drawings, three-dimensional artworks, and collages to augment my photography practice. It is exciting to change mediums sometimes as long as it satisfies my impetus to create art. It all comes from the same source, and it is like I keep reworking the same ideas but in different mediums.
MK: Do you collaborate with like-minded individuals on projects, or do you find it more productive to handle everything yourself? Are there any collaborations in the past that have been particularly beneficial?
JC: The only person with whom I have ‘collaborated’ is my late husband, the artist David Pann. We did not make artwork together, but we always shared that passion for talking about art ideas and would toss around themes and projects that would be fun to try for each of us. I would always make pictures by myself, but getting critiques from him and others was thought-provoking and helpful, even when there were differences. Collaboration with him was just part of life and not something separate from daily living.
MK: You’re a 2023 honoree for Achievement in Fine Art from the Lucie Foundation and have been a Guggenheim recipient, among other prestigious awards and grants throughout the years. Do you feel as though the recognition adds or changes anything about how you continue to make work? Do they help you further your goals?
JC: Having received numerous grants during my artistic career made a positive difference in my life by providing financial help so I could make my art more easily. Receiving financial rewards reinforced the recognition I was getting. When I received my Guggenheim grant, I took off a semester from teaching to just make art. That was marvelous. The N.E.A.’s were also very important in those same ways. It always feels wonderful to be recognized for my achievements by those in my field. The Lucie Award is also an honor that I fully appreciate.
In the past, I could not take too much time to bask in the applause because I had to focus on what my next project would be. On the one hand, I felt that warm feeling of satisfaction, and on the other hand, I still faced the same challenges of making art, which has been my lifetime challenge. I have been very lucky to have received the recognition I have, and I never take any of that for granted. My goals have always been to make more art.
MK: You’ve been teaching at CalArts since 1976 and remain a faculty member to this day. Have you experienced any powerful changes in the way students absorb the principles you put forth, or maybe even the methods you’ve found useful?
JC: Not only have the students changed at Cal Arts, but I have changed over the 48 years I’ve taught there. It seems there is more professionalism in the students now because of radically changed technology. The ways it can be used to get their art seen by many people have changed. It still gets down to what art do you want to make and what does it mean to you to make it. The same questions about how to survive while being an artist are still as relevant as they were before. However, the art world has changed and become more like a business, and the students reflect this change in how they think about what their paths in life will be. Perhaps it was always a business as well as a dedication, but the business aspect of art seems more pronounced to me now.
MK: In speaking to future generations of photographers, do you have any words of wisdom for those setting out to make their mark in the photographic world?
JC: I have no words of wisdom for future generations of photographers. Photography can be put to so many uses, and I assume that will continue. I remember what my teacher, Heinecken, said to me as a student: “If there is anything else you can imagine doing rather than being an artist, you should do that.” I took that to mean that being an artist over many years is not easy and often not financially rewarding. Do something else if you can, unless there is nothing else that would satisfy you. I think that still holds true today.
MK: How do you see your work progressing in the future? Do you have anything new you are currently working on that we should be on the lookout for?
JC: I cannot say how I see my work progressing in the future. Right now, I am working on some collages, and that suits me at the moment. I cannot predict what will excite me in the future. One project at a time is the way it has worked for me so far. Onward.
You can find more of Jo Ann’s work on her website here.
All photographs, ©Jo Ann Callis
