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Jo Ann Callis (b. 1940) is an American photographer celebrated for her pioneering use of staged color photography and her ability to transform the familiar into the uncanny. Emerging in the experimental art scene of Los Angeles in the 1970s, she studied under Robert Heinecken at UCLA, whose influence encouraged her embrace of constructed imagery over documentary traditions. Callis’s work often centers on domestic interiors, where everyday objects, bodies, and gestures are reimagined through heightened color, dramatic lighting, and meticulous staging.Her photographs investigate the charged terrain of intimacy, desire, and vulnerability, particularly within the private sphere. Series such as Woman Twirling and Other Rooms exemplify her interest in the psychological undercurrents of ordinary life, where pleasure is entangled with unease and the domestic becomes a stage for the surreal. Beyond photography, her background in painting and sculpture informs her tactile approach to form, texture, and space.Callis’s work has been widely exhibited and collected, with major presentations at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Los Angeles Country Museum of Art; and the Getty Museum, which organized a significant retrospective in 2009. Through her inventive, unsettling, and theatrical images, Callis has established herself as a key figure in late 20th-century photography, whose explorations of identity, gender, and the psychology of the everyday continue to influence contemporary practice.
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Early Black and White Portfolio Gelatin Silver Prints, Circa 1970's, printed 2012
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Early Black & White Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1974-76
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Morphe Series Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1975
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Black Sun Unique Vintage Black & White Silver Prints, 8 x 10 inches, 1976
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Black Sun Unique Vintage Black & White Silver Prints, 16 x 20 inches, 1976
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Grids Series Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1983
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Grids Series Fuji Flex Prints, 1981-1983, Printed 2025
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Early Color Portfolio Archival Pigment prints, circa 1976, printed 2012
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Early Color Archival Pigment Prints, 1976-80, printed 2012
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Arizona Series Unique hand-colored Vintage gelatin silver prints, 1975
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Personal Portraits Unique Hand-colored Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints 1975
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Early Black and White Unique Hand-Colored Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1975
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Olympics Series Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1984
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Ballast Series Vintage Cibachrome prints, 1984-85
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Ballast Series Archival PIgment Prints, 1984-85
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Untitled (Holly) Series Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1986
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Photo Linens Unique Vintage Black and White Polaroids, 1987-89
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Mnemonic Series Unique Vintage Black and White Polaroids, 1990
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Risk Management Series Vintage Gelatin Silver Prints, 1991
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Fabric Series Unique Vintage Black and White Polaroids, 1992-93
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Fabric Series Vintage Cibachrome, 1992-94
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Pinhole Series Unique Hand-Colored Silver Gelatin Print, 1991-94
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Pinhole Series unique vintage Black and White Polaroids, 1988-93
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Cup of Joe Archival Pigment Print, circa 1980s
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Forbidden Pleasures / Cheap Thrills Vintage Cibachrome Prints, 11 x 14 inch, 1993
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Forbidden Pleasures / Cheap Thrills Vintage Cibachrome Prints, 20 x 24 inch, 1994
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Domestic Interiors Series unique Archival Pigment Prints, 1995
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Dogs Series Archival Pigment Prints, 1996-2004
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Babies Series Iris Prints, 2001
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Decor Series Archival Pigment Prints, 2005
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