Pictorialism into Modernism: The Clarence H. White School of Photography (Hardcover)

by Marianne Fulton (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This accompanying volume for a traveling exhibition of the Detroit Institute of Arts is an earnest, far-flung and somewhat repetitive appreciation of Clarence White and his photography school. In the 1920s and '30s, as reported here, that school had more to do than is commonly acknowledged with American art photography's progress from soft-lens genre pictorialism to more assertive modernist concepts of pure design, subjective composition and meticulous technique. White, who was prominent in?but frequently at odds with?the Alfred Stieglitz Photo-Secession, equated photography with painting and sculpture and saw such former students as Dorothea Lange, Anton Bruehl and Margaret Bourke-White bring new visual standards to magazine illustration, product advertising, social documentation and industrial photography. Among the volume's 150 plates, some are the work of top 20th-century camera artists; others give first publication to student projects from the Clarence White school's early years.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Pictorial photography is noted for its artistic expressiveness, careful design and composition, and muted focus. In 1914 Clarence White (1871-1925) left Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession group, abandoned his ambitions to be a photographic illustrator, and opened the Manhatten-based Clarence H. White School of Photography. Lecturers at his school included Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Edward Steichen. White's unique teaching skills, especially his encouragement of women students, nurtured the careers of such talented photographers as Margaret Bourke-White, Laura Gilpin, and Dorothea Lange. Presented by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the George Eastman House, this companion volume for a traveling exhibition contains the elegant photographic imagery of White and his students. The clear text by two photography curators imparts how the revered teacher's romantic pictorialism became the foundation for the student's avant-garde modernism. By far the most substantial review of White's work and influence in print, this is recommended for photohistory and general collections.?Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (March 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847819361
• ISBN-13: 978-0847819362
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,461,628 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Was Clarence H. White?, February 16, 2009

By	James R. Holland "Author of Adventure Photogr... (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There is not a great deal of published material available about pioneer American Photographer Clarence H. White or the photography schools he founded. White discovered photography in what was then considered the Wild West of Newark Ohio in the 1890's.
This book does much to fill in that obvious gap in the history of Art Photography. The authors Bonnie Yochelson and Kathleen A. Erwin painstakingly document the development of this self-taught "Western Frontier Photographer." How a man working as a book keeper could plan his pictures while working long hours six days a week as an accountant for a grocery and dry goods wholesale business is an interesting story all by itself. His friends who volunteered to model for his art photographs often had to rise before dawn just to get the chosen locations so that the light would be as envisioned by White during his painstaking planning and rehearsal process. One of the reasons for this was because he could often afford only one film plate per week so he only had one chance to capture each situation.
Clarence H. White was a "Pictorialist" who felt that photography should be beautiful enough to be regarded as a true art form. He was a founding member of The Photo-Secession Group. He and a close-friend F. Holland Day were two of the leading voices for classifying photography as an art. After forging new standards for his own work, White decided to move to NYC and opened an art photography school in 1914. He never made much money with either his photography or his teaching, but he did influence the entire field of Pictorial Photography.
White was a very "open minded" individual and preached that philosophy to all his students as well. He felt keeping an open mind would enable people to see the beauty that was all around them, but usually just taken for granted. At the time of early death in 1925, White was ranked with Alfred Stieglitz in importance to photographic history. Unlike Stieglitz, White didn't feel that women could not make important contributions to the art of photography other than by posing in front of the camera. That is why so many of the White School's most accomplished and remembered photographers were women. They realized that at White's School of Photography they would be treated as equals and given the respect they and their work were due. Among the better known female icons of photography that attended Whites School were Dorothea Lange, Margaret Bourke-White (no relation) and Lee Miller to name only a few of the most famous.
Included in the this coffee table book published by George Eastman House and Rizzoli International Publications, are many beautiful reproductions of the platinum prints so favored by White, his contemporaries and his Pictorialist students. Most of them are purposely shot with soft lenses to make them appear warm and fuzzy. White strongly favored pictures of family life in a kind of "Norman Rockwell" Americana style. Among my favorite photographs in the books are samples of the many beautiful nudes from the earliest days of photography. Naturally I liked the examples by White, Stieglitz, Karl Struss, Wynn Richards, Paul Outerbridge Jr., but also the nudes taken by other women students including Jane Reece and most especially one by Anne W. Brigman entitled "Invictus, 1025," whose work I wasn't previously familiar with.
The book is blessed with many fine examples of the work of White and his students in all facets of subject matter and once again, women are well represented in the portfolio. As the book moves from the Pictorialism into Modernism many of the photographs are no longer platinum prints but sharper black and white and color images.
This is a very helpful book about Clarence H. White and his style of photography and the schools he founded. While it is not discussed in this volume, the Ohio University Photography Department run by White's son Clarence H. White Jr. is set up on the Clarence H. White School of Photography model. As a BFA graduate of that program, I hadn't realized that fact until reading this book. It makes perfect sense. The other most helpful sources of information about White are probably "Clarence H. White (The Aperture History of Photography Series #11)" and the two biographies of F. Holland Day. Day's invitation to the entire White Family to spend part of their summers at his home on the Maine Seacoast making photographs with fellow like-minded photographers had an enormous influence on Clarence H. White and his entire family. Many of White's Best Photographs appear to have been taken in a Maine setting. The material in this book is not easy to find elsewhere. And like an invitation to seek out, White's grandson "Maynard Pressley White Jr. using materials collected by Jane Felix White," wrote a dissertation on White if one really wants to go digging
for more information on Clarence H. White.