Minor White
- Introduction
- Minor Martin White (July 9, 1908 – June 24, 1976) was an American photographer, theoretician, critic, and educator. He combined an intense interest in how people viewed and understood photographs with a personal vision that was guided by a variety of spiritual and intellectual philosophies. Starting in Oregon in 1937 and continuing until he died in 1976, White made thousands of black-and-white and color photographs of landscapes, people, and abstract subject matter, created with both technical mastery and a strong visual sense of light and shadow. He taught many classes, workshops, and retreats on photography at the California School of Fine Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, other schools, and in his own home. He lived much of his life as a closeted gay man, afraid to express himself publicly for fear of loss of his teaching jobs, and some of his most compelling images are figure studies of men whom he taught or with whom he had relationships. He helped start, and for many years was editor of, the photography magazine Aperture. After his death in 1976, White was hailed as one of America's greatest photographers.
- Wikidata
- Q712996
- Introduction
- American photographer, theoretician, critic and educator Minor White was born on July 9, 1908. He took his first photographs on a trip to Lake Superior in Northern Minnesota in 1937. From 1937 to 1938 White worked as an assistant in a photographic studio in Portland, Oregon. In 1938 White photographed historic nineteenth-century façades that were to be demolished in Portland, Oregon. He photographed the Portland commercial waterfront for the Oregon Art Project in 1939. White photographed the landscape of eastern Oregon in 1940. In 1942 White was commissioned by the Portland Art Museum to photograph two historic residences, the Dolph and Lindley houses. White moved to New York City, New York in 1945 and worked as a photographer at the Museum of Modern Art until 1946. That year he moved to San Francisco, California and photographed the work of architect Bernard Maybeck. In 1952 White was a co-founder and editor/director of Aperture magazine in San Fransico, California. In 1953, White moved to Rochester, New York to work for George Eastman House. He worked for GEH until 1956 and lived in Rochester until 1965. White was a founding member of the Society for Photographic Education in 1962. From 1965 to 1974 White taught photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. In 1968 he photographed in Maine and Vermont, United States and Nova Scotia, Canada. In 1973-1974 White photographed in Lima, Peru and Europe. He died June 24, 1976.
- Nationality
- American
- Gender
- Male
- Roles
- Artist, Author, Professor, Educator, Writer, Photographer
- Names
- Minor White, Minor Martin White
- Ulan
- 500000194
Exhibitions
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Photography Rotation 8
May 13, 2011–Mar 12, 2012
MoMA
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Abstract Expressionist New York
Oct 3, 2010–Apr 25, 2011
MoMA
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Photography Collection: Rotation 6
Aug 7, 2009–Mar 22, 2010
MoMA
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Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West
Mar 29–Jun 8, 2009
MoMA
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Photography Collection: Rotation 4
Dec 15, 2006–Jul 16, 2007
MoMA
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Minor White has
20 exhibitionsonline.
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Minor White Farm, Grande Ronde Valley, Oregon 1941
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Minor White Happy Farmyard, Grande Ronde Valley, Oregon 1941
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Minor White Town of Alicel, Grande Ronde Valley, Oregon 1941
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Minor White Nude, Bare Foot 1947
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Minor White Pacific Gas and Electric Company 1947
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Minor White Man and Moon, Matchstick Cove 1947
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Minor White Church in the Sierra Foothills 1948
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Minor White Devil's Slide, San Mateo County, California 1948
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Minor White Lobos Sandstone, Slit, and Shadow 1949
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Minor White Sand Blaster, Pacific Gas and Electric 1949
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Minor White Aquatic Park, San Francisco 1949
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Minor White Intimations of Disaster, no. 25 1949
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Minor White San Francisco 1949
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Minor White Twisted Cypress and Sea 1950
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Minor White Sandstone Lobos, "Returning Wave" 1950
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Minor White San Fransisco Houses 1950
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Minor White Rochester 1954
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Minor White Black Sun 1955
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Minor White Two Barns and Shadow 1955
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Minor White Two Barns and Shadow 1955
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Minor White Sound of One Hand 1957
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Minor White Celibate January 11, 1958
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Minor White Snow Shapes, High Key 1958
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Minor White Window Sill and Reflection 1958
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Minor White Ritual Branch 1958
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Minor White Cobblestone House 1958
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Minor White Hexagram (Chichi) Water over Fire 1958
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Minor White Poltergeist 1958
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Minor White Root and Frost 1958
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Minor White Rock in Sandstone 1959
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Minor White Frost Forms: Galaxy 1959
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Minor White Frost Forms: The ID Face 1959
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Minor White Night Icicle 1959
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Minor White Frost Forms: Sound of One Hand 1959
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Minor White Peeled Paint June 1959
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Minor White Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 1959
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Minor White Frost Wave 1959
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Minor White Haags Alley, Rochester 1960
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Minor White Frost Forms: Head and Arabesques 1962
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Minor White Moon and Wall Encrustations, Pultneyville, New York 1964
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Minor White Ponce, Puerto Rico 1973
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