Minor White

Minor White by Paul Martineau, associate curator in the Department of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum, contains 4 color and 160 b/w illustrations. And a well-written text entitled „My Heart Laid Bare“ that provides varied information about the photographer's life.

Minor White, born 1908 in Minneapolis, decided at the age of 28 to move West and ended up in Portland, Oregon, where he started to get seriously interested in photography. He made regular visits to the library and so became familiar with the works of Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston. He also joined the Oregon Camera Club

„Dreams and photographs have something in common; those photographs that yield to contemplation at least have a quality about them that tempt one to set associations going.“ (Minor White).

Vicinity of Rochester, 1954,

Many pics in this tome radiate a spirit that puts me in a trance-like state. Take the one of the two barns for instance. It is the sharp edges of the barn to the right that first caught my attention, and then the shadow of the telegraph pole, and then the sky above the two barns – it is almost as if I were able to move along with the clouds. There's something magical about this photograph, and about quite some others in this tome. „Manifestations of the Spirit“ describes indeed very aptly what I often felt.

For more, see my review on http://www.fstopmagazine.com/