Minor White, a Mentor in Life and Photography
Minor White (1908–1976) was arguably one of the most influential photographers and teachers in the 20th century. Recently, I read a book about White called Rites and Passages, which gives considerable insight into his life and work. I find him to be a kindred spirit in many ways. In this post, I’ll explore three of these ways, as a person, a photographer, and a teacher. Unless otherwise stated, quotes are from the book.
Minor White, the Person
White was a complex, multi-faceted person. His work and way of being mirrored this complexity. I relate to his shyness, desire for solitude, and being a seeker. As a gay man during a time when it was not openly acceptable, White often experienced confusion and shame and truly suffered as a result of his sexuality. White was shy and felt like an outsider. Since he couldn’t always articulate what he was feeling or thinking, photography became a way to work through his suffering. It was the language that was most comfortable for him; a tool for self-awareness and growth, as well as a way to serve others.
“I realized that photography was my mouthpiece, this was the way I talked, photography meaning writing about it, editing it, teaching and making it. I continued it as a service thing.”
“His credo was that through consciousness of one’s self one grasps the means to express oneself. Understand only yourself. The camera is just a means of self-discovery and a means of self-growth. The artist has something to say — himself. If that self is not large or intense, he need not give up art. The camera and the technique of observation will broaden him, deepen him immeasurably.”
White was a religious person, considered spiritual and even a mystic. He was always seeking ways to express the mystery and spirit he felt in the world. His background in poetry and botany served him well in being able to do this through photography. His photographs are often described as poetic.
“Spirit is often used to suggest the incorporeal or invisible as in the Latin spiritus for breath, and as well as to suggest life and energy. Whereas spiritual connotes an experience, spirit suggests something other than our selves. That is certainly the sense in which White uses it, when he writes of his desire ‘to invoke the invisible with the visible’.” (1959) ~ Minor White and the Quest for Spirit
White had a desire for solitude as well as a desire for contact with others. He needed silence and stillness in order to see. Yet, he also enjoyed the company of students living with him so he could share what he discovered. They were changed by his presence and teaching, yet there was a piece of Minor White that he didn’t let others see, particularly his suffering.
“Struggle as White did to overcome his shyness and his fear of vulnerability, he left many of his friends, even some close to him, with little sense of his inner life. He hid his suffering from most of them; he seems to have shared with many of us a deep feeling that there is some failure of character in being unhappy.”
White was always a student, especially of psychology and philosophy. He was fascinated by how the mind worked and how photographs mirrored our innermost selves.
“He studied G.I. Gurdjieff (Russian-Greek-Armenian mystic), who taught that most of us are asleep most of the time, experiencing the world through a disastrously fragmented and deadened intelligence, and that the first order of business is to wake up and stay awake.”
For Minor White, photography was his way to wake up and to be self-aware. His photographs were a way to reflect an experience of being alive. It is for me too.
Minor White, the Abstract Photographer
Early in his photographic career, White worked with Ansel Adams at the California School of Fine Arts, where he learned the zone system. Zones are levels of light and dark tones and understanding these levels helped a photographer expose correctly.
“Unlike Adams, who mainly photographed landscapes, White turned his highly refined craft to the art of the abstract. The Zone System’s manipulations are applied forcefully to drastically translate image tones into the unreal. We see images of frost, moss, eroded rock, and driftwood employed as abstract elements of shape, line and color rather than subject matter. We wonder just what we are seeing, and how the image was created. White used these abstractions, filled with shapes, lines, and rhythms — “gestures” if you will — as a tool of expression. White was a deeply religious man, and his pictures often seem mystical, even spiritual.” ~ Bill Coderre, Dreams with a Memory, Minor White Remembered
Like Adams, White discovered that the zone system could be used as a form of expression with many types of subject matter.
Photographs as Equivalents
White was a firm believer that the photograph mirrors the photographer in some way. His quote above succinctly describes how this works. A photograph is more than the subject being photographed, more than the label we put on it. So, photograph what else it is.
“The photographs in Rites and Passages have a visual harmony. Curves and shapes reappear in different pictures, suggesting equivalences: mud and muscle, driftwood and hair, ropes and garden hoses and cracked glass and chalk lines on street pavement. In individual photographs, we see the objects photographed not as the subjects of the pictures, but as elements of shape: frost on a windowpane as “Empty Head;” a splotch of light as “Windowsill Daydream.” It is often difficult to recognize the object depicted, aiding an appreciation of its abstract form. The viewer becomes aware of a feeling, a sensation, a mood, not an object, which is what White was after.” ~ Bill Coderre, Dreams with a Memory, Minor White Remembered
1. The photograph can mirror in some way the inner state of the photographer. It can suggest an emotion.
2. The photograph can show the ‘spirit’ of the subject, it’s invisible energy or the way it is connected to everything else, including the photographer.
3. The photograph can be a symbol or metaphor for a universal idea.
This year, I’ve been drawn to photograph embedded tree stumps. They could be roots that have become visible or the remains of a majestic tree. Either way, their womb-like shapes appeal to me. I call them ‘stumps with personality,’ as each one is complex and unique. I’m not exactly sure why I’m photographing these stumps, but when this happens I follow my instincts. I write about the images as a way of getting curious. Maybe they are a symbol of birth, that something new is generating within me. Or, possibly they are a subject that is often overlooked and I see their beauty. I want others to see what I see.
White’s quest was similar. He sought to merge the sacred and the profane. Whatever the reason, I’m open to learning more, following White’s dictum to “let the subject generate its own photograph.”
Minor White, the Teacher
“Minor White discovered that teaching photography was as important for him as photography itself. It was his vocation. However, there was one more important reason for his decision to dedicate himself to teaching. He realized that hardly anyone could interpret his photographs appropriately without relevant preparation. This was the reason why White taught photography and also gave lectures to the wider public. He wanted to awaken sensitivity, to shape the visual culture of the society.” ~ The Tao of Minor White’s Photography
Minor White taught classes, workshops and retreats throughout his life — at the California School of Fine Arts, Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on the road and in his own home.
1. White taught photography as an expression of the photographer.
Through the idea of photographs as equivalents (learned from Alfred Stieglitz) and the Zone System (learned from Ansel Adams), White practiced using tonal values as a form of expression. Edward Weston also influenced White’s use of visual form as a way to express universal ideas.
“…Stieglitz, Weston and Ansel all gave me exactly what I needed at that time. I took one thing from each: technique from Ansel, the love of nature from Weston, and from Stieglitz the affirmation that I was alive and I could photograph.” ~ Wikipedia
White developed a three-year course at the California School of Fine Arts on the subject of personal expressive photography. These photographs are wholly authentic, yet express something beyond what they are.
2. Photography was a way of life for Minor White.
Like my other mentor in seeing, Frederick Franck, White lived a completely integrated life. He practice what he preached.
“His teaching methods were dramatic rather than expository (he was not articulate!); he showed rather than told what he had in mind, which often required more of his students than they wanted to do.” ~ Rites and Passages
I’ve had similar experiences. I can’t always articulate what it means to live a contemplative life through photography. It’s an ongoing process and one that has to be lived and practiced. Hopefully, some of what I learn rubs off onto others. It’s also not easy, something that can be learned in a single exercise. You have to plant the seed and hope that it will be watered. Practice is everything.
“The big thing that Minor did as a teacher was to demonstrate, in word and deed, what a truly deep involvement in photography was. He showed you what it was to have photography at the heart of your life. It was an inspiration and a challenge.” ~ Paul Caponigro, Rites and Passages
To do this, he incorporated spirituality, Zen, and psychology (even hypnotism) into his teaching. Sometimes, he would use drawing as a way of having his students experience the meaning of “equivalence.”
There were some, Ansel Adams included, who felt that White went too far; that he was a great photographer, but engaged in too much navel gazing. Some of his psychological approaches could be misplaced. I agree that this is possible, yet Adams was concerned with pictures and White not so much. White was concerned with spirit.
3. Minor White focused on learning to see.
When White moved to teach at MIT, he designed a course called ‘Creative Audience.’ He believed that the traditional ways of teaching photography kept people from seeing. This new course did not involve picture making at all. Instead, he used techniques for heightening the senses and becoming more aware of bodily experiences in the moment.
“At first, his relationship with MIT was tenuous. They were concerned that White might be too unorthodox. Soon, however, his role became clear: to expose students to creativity in a medium other than their own. Exercises included meditation and readings in Zen. This disturbed some students who came “to study photography, not crawl around on the floor.” Still, many came away dazzled by White, with a deeper understanding of their selves and of the creative process of seeing.” ~ Dreams with a Memory
One student, John Daido Loori, who later became a Zen monk said,
“I really wanted to learn to see the way he did, to capture my subjects in a way that didn’t render them lifeless and two-dimensional. I didn’t realize that Minor was teaching us exactly that: not only to see images, but to feel them, smell them, taste them. He was teaching us how to be photography.” ~ Wikipedia
4. He was always a generous teacher.
“Minor White was a seeker, a searcher. From Catholicism to Boleslavksy to Zen to astrology, from I Ching to Ouspensky and Gurdjieff, from hypnosis to Schapiro and Wölfflin; from the hell of the military to the depths of music and art and the revelations he found in the photography of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Alfred Stieglitz. And with all he found, he was always generous to others; especially his students, for whom he was always there. When we were at his apartment he would share his cooking, drinks, and friendship. Yet he was a loner. Concentration, contemplation, and meditation were at his core whether making, studying, listening, or engaging. He preferred to be alone with silence, spirit, self.” ~ Where You and Image Blend: Minor White
I relate to this aspect of White’s being. I live in a constant dance between solitude and sharing. All of my favourite photography teachers have been extremely generous in sharing what they know and where they’re still exploring. For they know that each of us will take that knowledge and make it uniquely our own.
