| Names: | | | Dates: | 1908, 9 July - 1976, 24 June | | Born: | US, MN, Minneapolis | | Active: | US |
American photographer who developed a philosophical typology of photographs. As the founder and editor of Aperture from 1952 until 1975 he was immensely influential.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Photographer, poet, and influential teacher. Drawing from Steiglitz’ ideas of the photograph as an equivalent for human emotion, White’s photographic philosophy emphasized the image as metaphor and as spiritual experience. He combined Eastern philosophy, meditation, Gestalt psychology, and the teachings of Gurdjieff as avenues to access creative expression, and focused on the meaningful interaction of images in series. His own exquisitely printed black and white images reflect his spiritual journey. In 1952 White helped found Aperture magazine, serving as its editor until 1975. He was a curator at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, an influential teacher at Rochester Institute of Technology, San Francisco Art Institute, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A guru-like presence, many students lived with and studied under his mystical tutelage.
(Author: Garie Waltzer - Photographer and consultant)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
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Family history
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Visual indexes for this photographer are available for subscribers.There is so much more to explore when you subscribe.
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The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.213 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.558-559
• Coke, Van Deren with Diana C. Du Pont 1986 Photography: A Facet of Modernism (New York: Hudson Hills Press, The San Francisco Museum of Art) p.188
• Evans, Martin Marix (Executive ed.) 1995 Contemporary Photographers [Third Edition] (St. James Press - An International Thomson Publishing Company) [Expensive reference work but highly informative.]
• International Center of Photography 1999 Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (New York: A Bulfinch Press Book) p.231-232 [Includes a well written short biography on Minor White with example plate(s) earlier in book.]
• Weaver, Mike (ed.) 1989 The Art of Photography 1839-1989 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press) p.471 [This exhibition catalogue is for the travelling exhibition that went to Houston, Canberra and London in 1989.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.272-273 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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| "A sequence of photographs, then, functions as a little drama of dreams with a memory." | | "Exploring the depth and breath of the words Equivalent and Equivalence I have found a craftsmanship of feeling, a technique, an art, a psychology of feeling, and best of all, freedom from the tyranny of ecstasy." | | "Let the subject generate its own photograph. Become a camera." | | "No matter how slow the film, spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer it has chosen." | | "No matter what role we are in — photographer, beholder, critic - inducing silence for seeing in ourselves, we are given to see from a sacred place. From that place the sacredness of everything may be seen." | | "The joy of photographing in the light of the sun is, and the joy of editing in the light of my mind is." | | "The spring—tight line between reality and photograph has been stretched relentlessly, but it has not been broken. These abstractions of nature have not left the world of appearances, for to do so is to break the camera's strongest point - its authenticity." | | "When a sequence is brewing, the feeling inside is akin to a storm gathering. Only when the storm has passed and the photographs be like leaves all over the floor may I spell out among them the nature of the force that made communication." |
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