Biography

  • 1908

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

  • 1915

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

  • 1918

  • 1924

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

  • 1927

    • Graduates from West High School in Minneapolis

      Minor White, 1927
      Minor White, 1927

    • 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

      Minor White, Portland, 1938
      Minor White, Portland, 1938

  • 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 x 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

      Minor White, Vicinity of Cove, Oregon, 1941
      Minor White, Vicinity of Cove, Oregon, 1941

    • 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

    • April: he is drafted into the United States Army (24th Infantry Division) 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

    • July: he is deployed to Camp Caves, near Rockhampton, Australia

  • 1944

    • January: his division enters the New Guinea campaign on Goodenough Island and Hollandia and travels to Leyte, Mindoro, and Mindanao (Philippines)

      Minor White, 1944
      Minor White, 1944

  • 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) 

    • Minor White, 1945
      Minor White, 1945

    • Becomes close friends with the photography curators Beaumont and Nancy Newhall through the Museum of Modern Art, 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

    • 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

      Minor White, Point Lobos, California, 1946
      Minor White, Point Lobos, California, 1946

  • 1947

    • Assumes teaching position from Ansel Adams and develops a three-year photographic program at the California School of Fine Arts

    • Photographs landscapes in the vicinity of San Francisco

  • 1949

    • Minor White, 1949
      Minor White, 1949

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

      Philip Hyde, Minor White, 1949
      Philip Hyde, Minor White, 1949

    • Begins photographing theater groups, such as the Interplayers

  • 1950

  • 1951

  • 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

    • Minor White, 1953
      Minor White, 1953

    • 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

      Minor White, Rochester, 1964
      Minor White, Rochester, 1964

    • First solo exhibition in New York City, at the Limelight Gallery

  • 1955

    • Joins the Rochester Institute of Technology faculty, teaching photojournalism

    • Begins photographing rural upstate New York

    • Begins making 35mm color transparencies

    • Minor White, 1955
      Minor White, 1955

    • Minor White, 1955
      Minor White, 1955

  • 1956

    • Resigns from assistant curator position at the George Eastman House

    • Accepts a part-time faculty position with the Rochester Institute of Technology, in the newly formed four-year photography program

    • Becomes editor of Image magazine at the George Eastman House

    • A. W. Rossetto, Esq, Minor White, 1956
      A. W. Rossetto, Esq, Minor White, 1956

  • 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 x 5 Sinar view camera

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

    • Minor White, 1958
      Minor White, 1958

  • 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, photographs Oregon, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Utah, and South Dakota. He continues his summer trips west until 1967

  • 1961

  • 1962

    • Cofounds the Society for Photographic Education

  • 1964

    • Minor White, 1964
      Minor White, 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, as a visiting professor in the School of Architecture and Planning

    • Photographs Maine, where he will return regularly in coming years

  • 1966

  • 1967

  • 1968

  • 1969

    • Receives tenure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    • Photographs Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

      Minor White, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, 1969
      Minor White, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, 1969

    • Photographs the city of Boston

    • David H. McAlpin, Princeton University Class of 1920 and advocate for photography at Princeton, invites him 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

    • November: Publishes Mirrors, Messages, Manifestations

  • 1970

  • 1971

    • Continues to photograph Massachusetts

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

  • 1972

  • 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

      Minor White, 1973
      Minor White, 1973

  • 1974

    • Visits Europe for the first time and photographs Rome with students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    • Spends the summer photographing cities in Peru

    • Continues to photograph the city of Boston

    • Continues to photograph Maine

    • Retires from the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

    • 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

    • John Weiss, Minor White, 1974
      John Weiss, Minor White, 1974

  • 1975

    • Jupiter Portfolio is published

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology appoints him 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

    • Judy Dater, Minor White, 1975
      Judy Dater, Minor White, 1975

  • 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

      Abe Frajndlich, Minor White, 1976
      Abe Frajndlich, Minor White, 1976

    • 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