Background
Clarence Hudson White was born on April 8, 1871, in West Carlisle, Ohio. He showed an early interested in art, but was discouraged by his parents who eventually moved the family to Newark, Ohio.
Clarence Hudson White was born on April 8, 1871, in West Carlisle, Ohio. He showed an early interested in art, but was discouraged by his parents who eventually moved the family to Newark, Ohio.
Clarence's parents eventually moved the family to Newark, Ohio where White graduated from high school.
In 1890, Clarence Hudson White became an accountant for Fleek and Neal, which was a wholesale grocery firm. When White married Jane Felix in 1893, he began taking photographs. As with many photographers throughout history, he was captivated by the camera. The couple quickly started a family and with a small wage, White could only afford two film plates per week. To fit his rigid office schedule, White would most often take his photographs in the early morning with his 6 ½” x 8 ½” Premo view Camera with a Taylor-Hudson rapid View Portrait Lens.
Because of his limited time and money for film, White was extremely careful choosing and posing his subject matter. The setting, costumes, and subjects of those two weekly photographs were planned down to the smallest detail. Many Newark residents whose faces were immortalized by White recalled rising in the middle of the night to spend hours practicing and posing for the moment when the dawn light was just right for Clarence White to photograph them.
These intricate sessions finally led White to recognition. In 1896, the Ohio Photographer’s Association awarded him with a gold medal. However, it was White’s participation in the exhibition at the Philadelphia Photographic Salon in 1898 that won him national recognition. That same year he founded the Camera Club of Newark, Ohio, published images in The Photographic Times, and made an important trip to the East to meet Alfred Stieglitz, F. Holland Day and Joseph Keiley.
He soon had solo exhibitions at the Camera Club in New York, the Camera Club in Boston, organized the first exhibit of American photographers and showed in London’s Photographic Salon. During this period he also became a member of the Linked Ring and other photographic related organizations. He also won numerous awards and medals and was selected for other group exhibitions during this time.
In January 1901 White established his first studio, The Studio of Clarence H. White, while still remaining employed with Fleek and Neal. In 1902, White was a co-founder to Stieglitz’s group the Photo-Secession. Soon, White was a frequent in the Camera Work magazine, and he was featured in the third issue. Finally, after achieving undeniable success, White moved to New York City to devote himself full-time to photography. His family followed in 1907. Many believe “the richest of his career”, as far as making imagery, was in Newark.
Upon first arriving in New York City, White assisted Stieglitz at the gallery. They collaborated on a series of nudes and experiments with the autochrome process. In the winter of 1907 he was appointed as the first photography instructor at Columbia University. Just a year later he was hired at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences as their photography professor. He was pioneering a new field of study and research by becoming a photography educator. Under his instruction and influence were many of the next generation of photographers who made major contributions to photographic history, including Margaret Bourke-White, Anton Bruehl, Dorothea Lange, Paul Outerbridge, and many more.
In the summer of 1910, White founded a summer school of photography in Maine. Due to White’s dedication to photography education and its financial necessity, White’s personal work began to decline and Stieglitz became irritated. The two broke ties just a few years later, in 1912. The Clarence White School of Photography was founded in 1914 in New York City. While many of his previous friends and colleagues began to turn away from Pictorialism, White kept his vision and in 1916 helped to form the Pictorial Photographers of America, of which he became the first President. Until his death in Mexico City on July 8, 1925, White remained dedicated to the art and education of photography. He was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in 1986.
A Study in Gum
The Cave
Blindman's Buff
Untitled
Boy with Camera Work
Telegraph Poles
Drops of Rain
Experiment #27 (collaboration with Stieglitz)
The Brothers
The Bubble
Figure Study
Torso (collaboration with Stieglitz)
Mother and Child
The Hillside
Pipes of Pans
Letitia Felix
The Skeleton of the Ship, Bath, Maine
Clouds, Maine
A Model
The Orchard
Peacock Feather
Nude
Morning
Factory Town in Winter
Winter Landscape, Newark, Ohio
Spring - A Triptych
F. Holland Day
Director of the Hagerstown National Bank
Portrait
The Kiss
Jane and Mary Elizabeth Wilson
Newport, Rhode Island
Under the Arbor
Nude
The Ring Toss
The Studio Window
Boy with Wagon
Nude
Miss Grace
From the beginning White's vision was heavily influenced by the culture and social ways of a small town in Ohio. He "celebrated elemental things, the time spent playing in the fields or woods, the simple pleasure of unhurried living, the playing of games in interior spaces… White, growing up within an extended family, knowing nothing else, had no real sense of other societies and his pictures thus had a kind of fortification against the outside. They were his private epic."
White was elected an honorary member of the New York Camera Club in 1899, and had his work exhibited there, and he was named to England's Linked Ring Brotherhood in 1900. He was a founding member of the Photo-Secession in 1902, along with Stieglitz, Käsebier, Alvin Langdon Coburn, and others.
Quotes from others about the person
It is not coincidental that Clarence White's life in photography began in the year of his marriage. My grandmother wore a great many hats, and all with real flair; she was wife, mother, business manager, model, aesthetic critic, stoic, and a buffer between my grandfather and many of the unpleasantnesses of life. With steadfast devotion, she created an environment in which he could lead a calm and productive life.
When White married Jane Felix in 1893, he began taking photographs. The couple quickly started a family and with a small wage, White could only afford two film plates per week. In 1895 their first son, Lewis Felix White, was born, followed by a second son, Maynard Pressley White, a year later.