Gay Photographer Minor White’s Stunning Work Is Celebrated In New Retrospective

Minor White: Manifestations of the Spirit, the first major retrospective of the great American photographer’s work since 1989, is on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum through October 19 in Los Angeles. White spent his life in the closet and many of his male nude images were never publicly exhibited until over a decade after he passed away. The current exhibition at the Getty features a broad array of White’s work including never-before-seen photographs from White’s archive at Princeton University. After finishing his studies at the University of Minnesota, White moved west and worked as a photographer through the Oregon Camera Club in Portland. During World War II White served in military intelligence and moved to New York City after his discharge to continue his photography work and studies. In 1946 Ansel Adams invited White to join the faculty of the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco where he became increasingly self-aware and conscious of censorship and his need to suppress the homoerotic content in his work. He co-founded the photography magazine Aperture with a group of photographers including Ansel Adams and edited the publication through 1975. White spent his lifetime teaching and photographing the world around him, often revealing heavy and evocative themes of sexual frustration while searching for symbolic significance in his body of work.

Images by Minor White

Images by Minor White