3 Quotes & Sayings By Minor White

Minor White is a noted American sculptor, painter, and printmaker born in 1938. He was one of the leading artists during the 1960s and 1970s in San Francisco, where he was also an important teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. White has collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg since the early 1960s. His work has been shown widely in galleries and museums, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art Read more

1
When you approach something to photograph it, first be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence. Then don't leave until you have captured its essence. Minor White
2
To get from the tangible to the intangible (which mature artists in any medium claim as part of their task) a paradox of some kind has frequently been helpful. For the photographer to free himself of the tyranny of the visual facts upon which he is utterly dependent, a paradox is the only possible tool. And the talisman paradox for unique photography is to work "the mirror with a memory" as if it were a mirage, and the camera is a metamorphosing machine, and the photograph as if it were a metaphor…. Once freed of the tyranny of surfaces and textures, substance and form [the photographer] can use the same to pursue poetic truth" (Minor White, Newhall, 281). . Minor White