Biography

1908

Minor Martin White is born on July 9 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1915

George Martin, White’s grandfather and an amateur photographer, gives White a Brownie camera.

1918

1924

Martin gives White a carbon-arc projector and hundreds of commercial slides of historical and travel photographs.

1927

White graduates from West High School in Minneapolis.

Begins college at the University of Minnesota, studying botany, literature, and poetry

Learns the basics of photography by making photomicrograph transparencies of algae

1934

Graduates from the University of Minnesota with a degree in botany and English

1936

1937

Begins using an Argus C3 35mm camera and photographs a trip to Lake Superior with friends

Moves to Portland, Oregon, and lives at the YMCA while working as a night clerk at the Beverly Hotel

Works for a photo printer in order to fund purchases of photography equipment

Begins regularly reading photography books

1938

Starts a camera club at the YMCA and sets up a gallery and darkroom

Sees original pictorialist photographs at the camera club

Begins working for the Oregon Art Project, funded by the Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) Art Program of the Federal Works Agency, photographing the Front Avenue neighborhood’s historic buildings (before demolition) and the commercial waterfront

1940

Continues photographing in Portland until June, when he moves to eastern Oregon to teach photography at the La Grande Art Center (a WPA center)

Begins photographing landscapes in eastern Oregon using a 3 1/4 × 4 1/4 Speed Graphic as a view camera

Completes his first article on photography, “When Is Photography Creative?” (published in 1943 in American Photography)

1941

Continues photographing landscapes in eastern Oregon

Three of his photographs are selected for the Image of Freedom exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and are purchased when the exhibition closes.

Resigns from the La Grande Art Center to return to Portland, Oregon, in October

1942

First solo exhibition at the Portland Art Museum

Commissioned by the Portland Art Museum to photograph the Jacobs-Dolph and Knapp-Lindley mansions

Drafted into the United States Army (24th Infantry Division) in April and leaves most of his Portland negatives with the Oregon Historical Society before deploying to O’ahu, Hawaii, in May

1943

Photographs enlisted men and officers

Deployed to Camp Caves, near Rockhampton, Australia, in July

1944

In January, White’s division enters the New Guinea campaign on Goodenough Island and Hollandia and travels to Leyte, Mindoro, and Mindanao (Philippines).

1945

He is awarded the Bronze Star and is discharged at Fort Louis, Washington, after leaving the Philippines.

Travels to New York and enrolls in Columbia University’s Extension Division, where he lives in a residence hotel at 628 West 114th Street (now River Hall, Columbia University)

Becomes close friends with the photography curators Beaumont and Nancy Newhall through MoMA, where he is hired as a photographer and where Beaumont is also employed

Begins photographing facades in New York City

1946

Accepts a teaching position at the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA)

Moves to San Francisco and lives in a house owned by the photographer Ansel Adams (129 24th Avenue)

Begins photographing landscapes in California and visits Point Lobos for the first time

1947

Assumes teaching position from Ansel Adams and develops a three-year photographic program at CSFA

Photographs landscapes in the vicinity of San Francisco

1949

Begins photographing San Francisco neighborhoods and events, acquiring a Zeiss Ikonta B camera for the project, which he will continue for many years

Begins photographing theater groups, such as the Interplayers

1950

1951

Moves to a loft at 135 Jackson Street, adjacent to the Embarcadero in San Francisco

1952

Cofounds Aperture magazine and becomes production manager and editor; the first issue debuts in April

1953

Beaumont Newhall invites him to join the staff of the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

Moves to Rochester, New York, in November and lives in the Newhall home for four months

1954

Moves to 72 North Union Street

Begins photographing the city of Rochester

First solo exhibition in New York City at the Limelight Gallery

1955

Joins the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) faculty, teaching photojournalism

Begins photographing rural upstate New York

Begins making 35mm color transparencies

1956

Resigns from assistant curator position at the George Eastman House

Accepts a part-time faculty position with RIT, in the newly formed four-year photography program

Becomes editor of Image magazine at the George Eastman House

1957

Commissioned by William H. Gratwick III to photograph peonies and other plants at Linwood, the Gratwick home in Pavilion, New York

1958

Purchases a 4 × 5 Sinar view camera

Begins photographing winter abstractions of icicles, snow, and frost in Rochester and various upstate New York locations

1959

Acquires a Leica 35mm camera for color photography

Purchases a used Chevrolet van and equips it for camping and photography

In his first trip across the United States, White photographs Oregon, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and South Dakota. He continues his summer trips west until 1967.

1961

Makes his first visit to Capitol Reef National Monument, Utah

1962

Cofounds the Society for Photographic Education

1964

Commissioned to photograph the First Unitarian Church in Rochester

1965

Moves to the Boston area and purchases a large home at 203 Park Avenue, Arlington

Begins teaching photography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as a visiting professor in the School of Architecture and Planning

Photographs Maine, where he will return regularly in coming years

1966

Photographs New Hampshire

Begins working on Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations in December

1967

Travels to Utah to photograph the Capitol Reef National Monument

Photographs on the coast of Massachusetts

1968

Completes Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations in January

Photographs rural scenes in Addison County, Vermont

Establishes permanent collection of photographs for MIT

1969

Receives tenure at MIT

Photographs Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Photographs the city of Boston

David H. McAlpin, Princeton University Class of 1920 and advocate for photography at Princeton, invites White to campus to give the annual Alfred Stieglitz Memorial Photography Lecture; White’s lecture is titled “Photography and Inner Growth.”

Princeton University Art Museum acquires his sequence Sound of One Hand.

Publishes Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations in November

1970

Continues to photograph Maine, Vermont, and Nova Scotia

1971

Continues to photograph Massachusetts

Assists in the founding of Imageworks, a school of photography in Boston

1972

Photographs Nova Scotia and travels to New Brunswick, Canada

1973

On his final major trip west, visits Ansel Adams

Photographs San Juan and Ponce, Puerto Rico

Photographs landscapes and architecture in Chilca, Huaraz, Ica, and Paracas, Peru

1974

Visits Europe for the first time and photographs Rome with students from MIT

Spends the summer photographing cities in Peru

Continues to photograph the city of Boston

Continues to photograph Maine

Retires from the faculty of MIT

Peter Bunnell invites him to teach a one-day seminar at Princeton University.

Edits his final issue of Aperture and is hereafter credited as Founding Editor

1975

Jupiter Portfolio is published.

MIT appoints White senior lecturer and Fellow of the Council for the Arts for 1975–76.

Suffers a heart attack in Boston after trips to England and Ohio

1976

Photographs solely with a Polaroid SX-70 and spends much of his time reading

March–May: Works on portraiture project, Lives I Never Lived, with Abe Frajndlich

Dies from a second heart attack on June 24 and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Bequeaths his personal photographic archives, papers, library, and collection of original photographs—his own and those by others—to Princeton University