Web Work #5- Minor White

Minor White-

I decided to research Minor White for many reasons. First, he is from Minneapolis Minnesota. Minor was born in Minneapolis on July 9th, 1908. He attended the one and only University of Minnesota. While at the U of M he earned a degree in botany and a major in English. Secondly, in a way I feel like I started out a lot like him. He thought that he was going to be a big poetry writer, but that failed while he was a bartender and waiter at the University Club. It was in 1938 that he discovered he liked photography. He had moved out of Minnesota and had gone to Organ. During his time in Oregon he was in a club called The Oregon Camera club. This is when he started taking assignments from the Works Progress Administration and also started showing art at the Portland Art Museum.
He did not stay in Oregon for long. After he served in World War II he moved to New York City in 1945. This is where he spent a few years studying art and creating his own distinctive style. This is also where he met some wonderful photographers for example Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Alfred Stieglitz.
Thirdly, I really liked most of Minor Whites photography. He liked to photograph the simple things that you wouldn’t think would be so interesting. When looking at his work they become interesting, because of how the lighting is in the picture. He would photograph barns, doorways, water, sky, or even simple paint peeling from the wall. Most of his work is just touching for me to look at and that’s what he wanted. They say he creates symbols to represent emotions; he accompanies his images with text or places them in sequence.
He then moved out went because Ansel Adams invited him. He worked more with Ansel in a magazine in 1952 and he edited the magazine until 1975.
He then moved again in 1952 to Rochester NY. There he worked as a curator for four years at George Eastman House. It is a museum dedicated to photography. He was also editing their magazine as well. Minor also taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1956 to 1964. Then he spent the last 10 years of his life teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Minor White was in pain for much of his life because back then it was unruly to have feelings for males. He felt trapped for the feelings he had for men. He had a series of young male photographs and they were considered to be the masterworks of the genre, and they were only published in 1989.
Minor White is still known to be one of the best American photographers. He will always be remembered for his ways and ideas to see the spiritual in photographs.