tainly important, but mostly because they inspired
in the viewer ideas and meditations on the self.
In November 1946, White visited Weston for the
first time at Point Lobos, an inspirational photo-
graphic site he returned to often even after Weston’s
death. Shortly afterwards, White assumed major
teaching responsibilities at CSFA, helped develop a
three-year photography program, and held various
combined exhibitions with his students. He com-
pleted his first non-narrative sequenceAmputations,
which was never exhibited at the California Palace of
the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, as scheduled
because of White’s refusal to exclude the poetic text
from the exhibit. In 1948, he began to work in por-
traiture and figure composition exploring techniques
of theatrical lighting, character revealment, and
directorial projection that reach a climax with his
Fifth Sequence / Portrait of a Young Man as Actor
of 1952.
Along with Adams, Dorthea Lange, the New-
halls, and others, White foundedAperturemaga-
zine and became its editor in 1952. In November of
the same year, he moved to Rochester, New York,
to join the staff of the George Eastman House
(GEH), where, as curator of exhibitions, White
directed three large theme exhibitions:Camera Con-
sciousness(1954),The Pictorial Image(1955), and
Lyrical and Accurate(1956). He also editedImage
magazine. His first New York City one-man exhibi-
tion was held at the Limelight Gallery in 1954.
In 1955, White taught photo-journalism at the
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), gave his
first public lecture at Ohio University, and accepted
his first of many students in residence. The following
year, he directed workshops that encouraged stu-
dents to interact in lectures, field sessions, and print
critique. He was appointed to the faculty of RIT in
1956 where he taught photography until 1965. In
April 1959,Sequence 13 / Return to the Budwas
exhibited at the George Eastman House, White’s
largest sequence to date comprising 115 photo-
graphs. In the same year, ‘‘The Way through Camera
Work,’’ a definite statement of White’s philosophy to
photography, was published inAperture.
In February 1965, White was appointed visiting
professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Techno-
logy (MIT) where he taught and exhibited (including
Light 7) over the next decade. In 1968, he completed
Mirror Messages Manifestations, the only book writ-
ten by him on his own work. In 1970, White received
a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which had
been denied to him on two former accounts.
In June 1976, White died of a heart attack in
Boston. His archives are in the Library of Prince-
ton University, New Jersey. Major collections of
his work can be found at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, California; International
Museum of Photography, George Eastman House,
Rochester, New York; The Art Museum, Princeton
University, New Jersey.
NancyPedri
Seealso:Adams, Ansel; Stieglitz, Alfred; Weston,
EdwardBiography
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 9 July 1908. Studied botany
and literature, University of Minnesota, 1927–1930, 1932–
1933; B.Sc., 1933; studied art history and aesthetics,
Columbia University, New York, 1945–1946; self-edu-
cated in photography. Creative photographer, Works Pro-
gress Administration, 1938–1939; photography instructor,
YMCA, Portland, 1938; photography instructor, then
Director, La Grande Art Center, Oregon, 1940–1941;
photographer, Museum of Modern Art, New York,
1945; photography instructor, California School of Fine
Arts, today San Francisco Art Institute, 1946–1953; found-
ing editor and production manager,Aperturemagazine,
1952–1975; exhibitions organizer, George Eastman House,
Rochester, New York, 1952–1956; photography instruc-
tor, Rochester Institute of Technology, 1956–1965; editor,
Imagemagazine, GEH, 1956–1957; founding member,
Society for Photographic Education, 1962; photography
instructor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),
Cambridge, 1965–1976; founding trustee, Friends of
Photography, California, 1967–1976; received tenured pro-
fessorship, MIT, 1969. John Simon Guggenheim Foun-
dation Fellowship, 1970; Honorary Doctorate of Fine
Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1970; Honorary
Doctorate of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, 1976.
Died in Massachusetts, 24 June 1976.Individual Exhibitions
1939 Portland Iron Front Buildings; W.P.A. Exhibition,
Portland, Oregon, and traveling
1942 Grande Ronde Valley; Portland Art Museum, Port-
land, Oregon
First Sequence; YMCA, Portland, Oregon
1948 Song Without Words; San Francisco Museum of Art,
California, and traveling
1950 Intimations of Disaster; Photo League, New York,
New York
1952 Fifth Sequence / Portrait of a Young Man as Actor,
Sequence 6, Intimations of Disaster; San Francisco
Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
1954 Sequence 7, 8, 9; Limelight Gallery, New York, New
York
1959 Sequence 13 / Return to the Bud; George Eastman
House, Rochester, New York, and traveling
1960 Sequence 15a; Smithsonian Institution, Washington,
D.C.
1961 Song Without Words; Carl Siembab Gallery, Boston,
Massachusetts
1964 Sequence 17 / Out of Love for You I Will Try to Give
You Back to Yourself; Humboldt State College, Arcata,
CaliforniaWHITE, MINOR