Clarence H. White

American, 1871-1925

BiographyAmerican photographer Clarence H. White (1871-1925) was an influential teacher and leading Pictorialist photographer best known for his intimate studies of rural, middle-class family life.

Born and raised in rural Ohio, White learned photography as a hobby in 1893 while working as a bookkeeper at a Newark grocery firm. Wholly self-taught, he began to exhibit his work in 1896 at Ohio and Michigan camera clubs. Two years later, he won the grand prize at the Pittsburgh Amateur Photographers’ Society’s first international exhibition, participated in the First Philadelphia Photographic Salon, and founded the Newark Camera Club. Through these experiences, White met many leading Pictorialist photographers, including Gertrude Käsebier, F. Holland Day, and Alfred Stieglitz, and formed lasting friendships with many. Upon exhibiting his work at the London Photographic Salon (1899), White began to receive international attention for his sensitive, innovative photographs. That same year, the Camera Club of New York honored him with his first solo exhibition. White also began to take commercial commissions, including providing photographic illustrations to written works, including Irving Bacheller’s Eben Holden (1901) and Clara Morris’s Beneath the Wrinkle (1904), to supplement his income as a bookkeeper. As a founding member of the Photo-Secession (1902), White regularly contributed to Stieglitz’s Camera Work and exhibited at their salons and gallery.

After moving his family to New York in 1906, White began teaching photography part-time at Columbia Teachers College. Despite his lack of formal training and initial apprehension, White found teaching a deeply fulfilling activity that mutually invigorated him and his students. White’s approach to instruction that focused on ways of seeing rather than solely developing technical knowledge encouraged and shaped emerging photographers like Ralph Steiner, Dorothea Lange, and Karl Struss. Motivated by this experience, in 1910, White founded a summer school in coastal Maine with fellow artist Max Weber (1881-1961) and then opened the renowned Clarence H. White School of Photography, New York City (1914). With his wife Jane’s tireless administrative support, White continued to teach until his sudden death while leading a student trip to Mexico City in 1925. A testament to his lasting influence as a teacher and photographer, White’s work continues to be exhibited regularly in museum group and solo exhibitions, including the most recent 2018-19 traveling retrospective Clarence H. White and His World, organized by the Princeton University Art Museum. His work can also be found in numerous museum collections in the United States and internationally.

Person TypeIndividual

Terms