Clarence Hudson White (April 8, 1871 – July 8, 1925) was an American photographer, teacher and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He grew up in small towns in Ohio, where his primary influences were his family and the social life of rural America. After visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he took up photography. Although he was completely self-taught in the medium, within a few years he was internationally known for his pictorial photographs that captured the spirit and sentimentality of America in the early twentieth century. As he became well known for his images, White was sought out by other photographers who often traveled to Ohio to learn from him. He became friends with Alfred Stieglitz and helped advance the cause of photography as a true art form. In 1906 White and his family moved to New York City in order to be closer to Stieglitz and his circle and to further promote his own work. While there he became interested in teaching photography and in 1914 he established the Clarence H. White School of Photography, the first educational institution in America to teach photography as art. Due to the demands of his teaching duties, his own photography declined and White produced little new work during the last decade of his life. In 1925 he suffered a heart attack and died while teaching students in Mexico City.
Life 1871–1893: Early years White was born in 1871 in West Carlisle, Ohio, the second son and youngest child of Lewis Perry White and Phebe Billman White. He was raised in what was known as "The American House," a large tavern built by his great-grandfather and Ohio pioneer settler Augustine White in 1817. His childhood was described as "idyllic",White (1975), p 9 and, unlike many children of the time, he grew up in good health and with no deaths or tragedies in his family. He and his brother Pressley, who was two years older, spent much of their time playing in the fields and hills near their small hometown.
When White was sixteen the family moved to the small town of Newark, Ohio, where his father accepted a job as traveling salesman for the wholesale grocery firm of Fleek and Neal. With his father gone much of the time White was left to pursue his own interests, and he became a serious student of the violin. From his late teens into his mid-twenties White kept a diary in which recorded both the events of his days and also his interests and opinions. He wrote increasingly of his interest in music and pictorial arts; there is no mention of photography in his diaries of this period.
After high school White became a bookkeeper at the firm where his father worked. He was a diligent worker, but his job gave him little opportunity to pursue his artistic interests. He wrote that he reported to work at 7 am six days a week and left at 6 in the evening, sometimes working on Sundays when things were really busy.White (1979), p 7 His maternal uncle Ira Billman, who was a published poet, encouraged White to continue developing his creative skills, and by 1890 White was producing sketchbooks filled with pencil sketches, pen-and-ink drawings and watercolors.
Some of the artistic vision White developed during this time he later applied to his photography. He learned how to use light, or the lack of it, to draw attention to his subject. He also learned how to visualize his subjects in his mind. White's grandson and biographer Maynard Pressley White Jr. noted that among his grandfather's sketches of this time was a drawing of a female nude seated on a large sphere, blowing bubbles from a pipe and surrounded by many floating spheres in the air.White (1975), p 17 This same imagery later appeared repeatedly in White's photography.
It was through his musical interests that White met his future wife, Jane Felix (1869–1943), sometime in 1891–92. She was a schoolteacher, and his diaries contain notes about his taking her on dates to concerts in at nearby Denison University and in Columbus, Ohio. White recorded no other love interests in his diaries, and on June 14, 1893, he married Felix in Newark at the unusual hour of 6 am. Family records offer no indication of why the ceremony was held at that time, but within an hour after they exchanged vows White and his bride boarded a train bound for Chicago where they attended the World's Columbian Exposition. The Exposition was the single largest architectural, artistic, musical, and technological attraction of its time, with more than 26 million visitors, and it attracted people from all walks of life. It was there that he first encountered photography as a public medium. Not only were there multiple very large exhibits showing photographers from around the world, there were many camera and darkroom equipment manufacturers displaying and selling their latest goods, dozens of portrait studios and even on-the-spot documentation of the Exposition itself. It was a non-stop immersion course into the world of photography at the turn of the century.
1893–1899: Becoming a photographer White did not record how soon he took up photography after he and his wife returned to Newark, but it had to have been quickly. There are at least two photographs taken by him that date from that same year, 1893, and by the following year he was deeply engaged in his new interest.White (1979), p 34 White's grandson wrote, "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."Maynard P. White, Jr. "Clarence H. White: Artist in Life and Photography" in Homer, p 11-19 The considerable influence of his wife in White's artistic development may be seen later when he began corresponding with Alfred Stieglitz; White often used the words "we" or "Mrs. White and I" when describing his most recent photographic activities.
When White and his wife returned to Newark, they were not in a prosperous situation. In order to make ends meet he and his bride moved in with his parents,White (1979), p7 and he continued to work long hours at his bookkeeping job. He initially had no interest in pursuing photography as a possible career, and even after he became successful he continued to work as a bookkeeper for many years.White (1975), p 40 Most of his earnings went to providing for his family, and his early involvement in photography was financially challenging. Later his student Ralph Steiner recalled that White told him during this period he had money for only two glass plate negatives each week, and he would spend every spare moment planning what he would do with those two plates on his weekend."White (1979). p8
White was completely self-taught throughout his career, in part because he had no money to pay for training or courses at the time when he was developing his own vision in the medium. Many of his friends, students and biographers believe his lack of any formal training was one of his greatest strengths. When a one-man exhibition of his work was held in Newark in 1899, fellow Newark photographer Ema Spencer wrote "He has been remote from artistic influences and is absolutely untrained in the art of the schools. In consequence, traditional lines have unconsciously been ignored and he has followed his own personal bent because he has been impelled by that elusive and inscrutable force commonly known as genius."Ema Spencer, forward to the Exhibition of Photographs by Clarence H. White, Newark, Ohio, at the Camera Club, 1899, quoted in White 1975, p 48 It is also important to note that at that time there were no formal schools of photography in the U.S. or even acknowledged leaders with whom White might have studied. The most common way a new photographer learned the trade was by working with an experienced photographer, and, other than a few portraitists, there was no one to learn from in Newark.
In 1895 their first son, Lewis Felix White, was born, followed by a second son, Maynard Pressley White, a year later. By the time Maynard was born the Whites had moved to their own house, probably due to the generosity of Mrs. White's father, John Felix, who owned several properties in Newark.White (1975), p 45 By this time White demonstrated enough accomplishment in his photography that he exhibited his first photos in public, at the Camera Club of Fostoria, Ohio.White (1975), p 92
A year later he received a Gold Medal at the Ohio Photographers Association exhibition in Columbus. Records do not indicate which photographs won the award for White, but two of them were almost certainly Study (Leticia Felix) and The Readers, for which he also won the Grand Prize at the First International Salon in Pittsburgh. Sculptor Lorado Taft saw White's work in Columbus and wrote "White knew nothing about the technic [sic] of photography, but the artists went wild over his pictures. I saw, and went wild too!."Lorado Taft, "Clarence H. White and the Newark, Ohio, Camera Club", Brush and Pencil, November 1898, quoted in White 1975, p 52
In 1898 White's fame continued to rise. His photographs reproduced for the first time in national publications (The Photographic Times, Harper's Magazine, and Brush and Pencil), and he traveled to the east coast to discuss the state of photography as an art with his colleagues. In Philadelphia, in conjunction with the First Philadelphia Photographic Salon, he met with F. Holland Day and Joseph Keiley, and in New York he met Alfred Stieglitz. The latter would remain close friends for several more years.
What is remarkable about this period in White's life is the fact that his limited finances allowed him to create only about 8 photographs each month, yet the quality of those images was so consistently high that he quickly received widespread acclaim for his work. He also worked under very difficult conditions. Due to the long hours at his bookkeeping job, he convinced family and friends to model for him in the evening or very early in the morning, even though they sometimes had to awake as early as 4 am in the summer in order to pose for him before he went to work.White (1979), p 8
In 1898 alone White created several photographs that are among his most acclaimed, including The Bubble, Telegraph Poles, Girl with Harp, Blind Man's Bluff, and Spring ‒ A Triptych.
The Newark Camera Club In order to advance his own knowledge of photography and to encourage others in his small home town, in 1898 White brought together a group of 10 local people to form the Newark Camera Club. All of its members, including White at that time, were amateur photographers who shared an active interest in pictorialism, but it was White's leadership that soon propelled the club's influence far beyond a small town in Ohio. Ema Spencer, a club member and later member of the Photo-Secession wrote that the club "was known in photographic circles here and abroad as 'the White School',Ema Spencer, "The White School", Camera Craft, July 1901, p85. Cited in Fulton, p 122 a reflection of White's stature and prominence. A goal of the Club was to have at least one major show of its members' work each year, but also to show the work of "photographers from the east as well as abroad, so their own work would profit from the examination and comparison."White (1975), p 53