Charles Harbutt has always been fascinated by magic, dating back to when he performed tricks of illusion for his friends as a kid growing up in Teaneck, N.J.
By the time he got to high school in 1949, Harbutt had long grown out of the idea that he might become a next generation Houdini. But he was still different from the other kids at his school, where sports was almost a religion. Either you were on a team or you stood in the stands cheering—and Harbutt wasn’t interested in either. But he found an out by signing up as a photographer for the school paper, and soon, he was on the sidelines making pictures.
It was the first time Harbutt had ever seriously used a camera, and, as he recalled in a recent interview, “It changed my life.”
At first, his decision to take pictures was a little about vanity.
Harbutt liked seeing his images alongside his name in the paper. But soon, he realized photography was also a way for him to continue exploring the themes that had captivated him about magic, including the idea of reality versus perception and how what you see in pictures wasn’t necessarily the original intent of the photograph.
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