Pictorialism into Modernism: The Clarence H. White School of Photography
by: Marianne Fulton

Hardcover. NY, Rizzoli, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. Pictorial photography is noted for its artistic expressiveness, careful design and composition, and muted focus. In 1914 Clarence White (1871-1925) left Alfred Stieglitz's Photo-Secession group, abandoned his ambitions to be a photographic illustrator, and opened the Manhatten-based Clarence H. White School of Photography. Lecturers at his school included Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Edward Steichen. White's unique teaching skills, especially his encouragement of women students, nurtured the careers of such talented photographers as Margaret Bourke-White, Laura Gilpin, and Dorothea Lange. Presented by the Detroit Institute of Arts and the George Eastman House, this companion volume for a traveling exhibition contains the elegant photographic imagery of White and his students. The clear text by two photography curators imparts how the revered teacher's romantic pictorialism became the foundation for the student's avant-garde modernism. By far the most substantial review of White's work and influence in print.