Jo Ann Callis

Magic Hour

Jo Ann Callis’ photographs have such an uncanny strangeness to them. They often feel like they could be stills out of a David Lynch film, but she was making them long before Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive came to be.

She was born in Cincinnati and pursued her interest in art at Ohio State University, though her eduction was interrupted by marriage, moving our to LA and having kids. These challenges, though, would end up becoming a big part of her subject matter. She’s always been interested in the domestic, the body , femininity and sexuality but her pictures always complicate something that might seem so familiar to us all.

She enrolled at UCLA and it was there that she studied under the highly inventive Robert Heinecken in the early 70’s, who made a big impact on her. He turned her onto the the work of Paul Outerbridge and encouraged her to pursue what was going on in her life and inside her head as fodder for work.

We conducted this interview at her home in Culver City, Los Angeles where she’s been living for the past 38 years where we talked about her life and work.

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