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: GW)
 
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409] (Used with permission)
 
Wikipedia
 
Minor Martin White (July 9, 1908 - June 24, 1976) was an American photographer, theoretician, critic, and educator. White made photographs of landscapes, people, and abstract subject matter. They showed technical mastery and a strong sense of light and shadow. He taught at the California School of Fine Arts, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in his home. Some of his most compelling images are figure studies of men he taught or with whom had relationships. He helped start the photography magazine Aperture, considered the only periodical produced for, and by, photographers practicing the medium as a fine art. He served as its editor for many years. White was hailed as one of America's greatest photographers.