Minor White

Minor lived from July 9, 1908 to June 24, 1976. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to the University of Minnesota where he majored in botany and minored in english. It was only after he moved to Portland, Oregon that he began his career as a photographer. He also served in WW11 in military intelligence. He then moved to New York and studied photography at Columbia, finding his own style, with many excellent photographers around him such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams. He was especially influenced by Stieglitz's idea of "equivalents".

The "equivalents" that White focused on were normally normal, mundane, things that he made more interesting by great light. He also taught at many places such as the California School of Fine Arts in San Fransisco. He taught for most of the rest of his life. In 1970, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. White was a closeted bisexual man, and this shows in much of his work. He was tormented by this socially unacceptable feeling towards men. His post-war work shows much more maturity and a spiritual search for peace and simplicity. His images of male nudes were not acceptable at this time, but they are often considered his best, and masterpieces of that genre. The ones that I picked weren't the nude ones, but some of them were the more mundane subjects with great light and some were very interesting subjects that didn't need that great light.


I like the contrast on this one from the black fence to the white snow. I also like the aspect, that its not straight-on for any of the objects here, but its showing them all in an interesting way.

I love the clouds in this one. And I love how the little house/cottage is really small, but your eyes are immediately drawn to it. I like its darkness against the white clouds and snow.

I love the clouds in this one too, more than the last one. And I love the shadow of something you don't see, but you can tell what it is. And its sharp. And I know these first three are really similar, but I really liked them all.

This image reminds me of a man who's late to work. Just the running, and I just feel like it could me a man who didn't have enough time to put his jacket on, and thats the thing he's dragging behind him. I like the different color here.

I really like the story this man is telling. With his balding white hair and his wrinkles and the way he sits and holds himself. And the hand stretched out and the mouth and eyes in a way that I'm not quite sure what he's doing, but its very interesting.