Minor White

Minor Martin White (July 9, 1908—June 24, 1976) was a North American photographer born in Minneapolis.

Related Topics:
July 9 - 1908 - June 24 - 1976 - Minneapolis

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Minor White studied/assisted under other major mid-century photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams. His own distinctive style did not develop until after 1945, when he moved to New York after serving in military intelligence, and took a course at Columbia University. In New York, he became involved with a circle of influential photographers; hearing Stieglitz's theory of equivalents, from the master himself, was crucial to the direction of White's mature post-war work.

Related Topics:
Alfred Stieglitz - Edward Weston - Ansel Adams - New York - Military intelligence - Columbia University

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White co-founded the influential magazine Aperture with fellow photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Barbara Morgan; writer/curator Nancy Newhall and her husband, historian Beaumont Newhall. White edited the magazine until 1975.

Related Topics:
Aperture - Ansel Adams - Dorothea Lange - Barbara Morgan - Nancy Newhall - Beaumont Newhall

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White was bisexual and felt tormented by his then socially-unacceptable feelings for young men. Much of this erotic turmoil expressed itself in his post-war subject matter and style, and in his spiritual search for peace and simplicity. His first major exhibition was in 1948 at the San Francisco Museum of Art.

Related Topics:
Bisexual - San Francisco Museum of Art

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For four years he worked as a Curator at George Eastman House and also edited their magazine Image. He taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1956 to 1964. White spent the last ten years of his life teaching at MIT where, among others, he taught Raymond Moore. In 1970 he was given a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Related Topics:
George Eastman House - Rochester Institute of Technology - MIT - Raymond Moore - Guggenheim Fellowship

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On his death White was hailed as one of America's greatest photographers. But, as academic and curatorial tastes changed in the 1980s and 90s, his poetic style of work went out of fashion. If he is remembered at all today, it is mainly for his ideas about the spiritual in photography.

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