Honey

Both Callis’s early black & white and color pictures, taken while studying under Robert Heinecken at UCLA, attest to the artist’s singular and lasting influence on photography through her inventive analysis of the pleasures and terrors of domestic comfort. In her work from the 70s, Callis merges perceived pain and apparent pleasure into a complex, inclusive representation of sensuality and sexual curiosity. Her deft use of opposing textures invites the viewer to lightly graze a sumptuous silk pinned to a grubby wall and tug at the taut string crisscrossing the model’s backside. While many of the photographs depict restraint marks, smeared lipstick, and leather, this work is rooted not in sadism but in tenderness.