Minor White (9 July 1908 – 24 June 1976)

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.

White 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. After his death in 1976, White was hailed as one of America’s greatest photographers.