Fotografo e teorico statunitense, è uno dei grandi maestri della fotografia del XX secolo.

Si laurea in botanica presso l'Università del Minnesota, inizia la carriera da fotografo lavorando con l'Oregon Camera Club, e poi lavorando con la Work Progress Administration ed esponendo al Portland Art Museum.

Durante la seconda guerra mondiale è nelle Filippine come soldato, al suo ritorno negli Stati Uniti per due anni studia storia dell'arte alla Columbia University. Dal 1946 inizia la collaborazione con il Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) di New York come fotografo.

Nello stesso periodo è in contatto con Beaumont Newhall, Nancy Newhall, Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Callahan e Paul Strand.

Nel 1947 è membro della Photo League. Nel 1952 con Ansel Adams, con i coniugi fotografi Beaumont e Nancy Newhall e Dorothea Lange fonda a San Francisco la rivista Aperture.

Per i successivi sei anni, dal 1953 al 1957 lavora come fotografo alla George Eastman House di Rochester, il più antico museo del mondo dedicato alla fotografia, quindi subito dopo viene chiamato a dirigere un'altra importante rivista di fotografia americana: Image. Dal 1955 al 1964 insegna fotografia e fotogiornalismo al Rochester Institute of Technology e dal 1965 al 1976 al MIT di Cambridge. Nel 1970 riceve una borsa di studio Guggenheim. 

Muore a Boston nel 1976.

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MOSTRE PERSONALI

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1960

Sequence 13: Return to the Bud by Minor White- The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1983

Minor White, Photographs- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

1989

Minor White: The Eye That Shapes- MOMA- Museum of Modern Art, New York City

1992

Minor White: Studio Guenzani, Milano

2001

Minor White- una retrospettiva- Galleria Civica di Modena, Modena

2009

Minor White- Osart Gallery, Milano

2012

70 Years 70 Photographs- Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR

 

MOSTRE COLLETTIVE

 

1960

The Sense of Abstraction-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1963

Five Unrelated Photographers-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1964

The Photographer's Eye-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1967

Photography: Recent Acquisitions-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1968

Photography as Printmaking-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1969

Portrait Photographs-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

1973

Photographer as Poet-Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL

1976

Masters of the Camera: Stieglitz, Steichen and Their Successors-ICP - International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

1978

Photographes du XXe siècle: Stieglitz, Steichen et leurs successeurs-Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QCThe Great West: Real/Ideal-ICP - International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

1980

Photography of the Fifties: An American Perspective-ICP - International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

1981

Les choix de l'œil : la photographie depuis 1940-Musée d´art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal, QC

1982

Les choix de l'œil : la photographie depuis 1940-Musee du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Rivière-du-Loup, QC

1983

19th & 20th Century Master-ArtSpace - Virginia Miller Galleries, Coral Gables (Miami), FL

1987

Legacy of Light-ICP - International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

1988

Master Photographs From the "Photography in the Fine Arts" Exhibitions, 1959–1967-ICP - International Center of Photography, New York City, NY

1992

Figure/Form: The Nude in 20th Century Photography-Jan Kesner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1994

American Surrealist Photography-MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY

2000

Photography in Boston - 1955-1985-DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA Moodstruck - Photographs from the Permanent Collection - University Museum of Contemporary Art - UMass Amherst, Amherst, MA

2001

The Nature of Still Life-Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Bologna - GAM, Bologna (closed, 2007)

2002

Warhol Explicitly Queer-Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City, NY

2003

Flesh Tones - 100 Years of the Nude-Robert Mann Gallery, New York City, NY

2004

Super Hits of the '70s - Photographs from the Collection-Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WIGlorious Harvest - photographs from the Michael E. Hoffman Tribute Collection-Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

2006

Depht of Field-Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC Photographs by the Score: Personal Visions Twenty-Some Years Apart-The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago,IL

Multiple Exposures: Highlights From Csulb Special Collections-UAM - University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA

2007

The Search to See II: Photographs from the Collection of Frederick B. Scheel-The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN

Photographic Formalities: From Ansel Adams to Weegee-Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL

Highlights from the Photography Collection-Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL

Photography As The: Eye Gym-AR Contemporary Gallery, Milan

2008

Seeing Greene & Greene: Architecture in Photographs-Pasadena Museum of California Art- PMCA, Pasadena, CAThe Infinite Landscape: Master Photographers From The Umma Collection-UMMA - The University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI Les Archives de l´Imagination-BOZAR - Palais des Beaux-Arts / Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels

2009

Scheinbaum & Russek Presents: Spring 2010-Scheinbaum & Russek LTD, Santa Fe, NM Paired Photographs -Indianapolis Museum of Art - IMA, Indianapolis, IN 

Beyond Beauty: Photographs from the Duke University Special Collections Library-Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC

Treasures of Gay Art -Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York City, NY20 / 20-G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA

2010

Aipad The Photography Show-Scheinbaum & Russek LTD, Santa Fe, NM 

Seeing Beauty-The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA 

In Focus: Photography from the Mills College Art Museum Colle-Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA

2011

Salon Style-Atlas Gallery, London (England)HIDE/SEEK: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture-Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York City, NY

Seismic Shift - Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal and California Landscape Photography, 1944-1984-UCR / California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA 

Polaroid [Im]Possible-WestLicht. Schauplatz für Fotografie, Vienna 

Recent Photography Acquisitions -The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2012

Howard Greenberg, Collection-Musée de l´Elysée, Lausanne Emmet Gowin and His Contemporaries -The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH 

A Discerning Eye: Julian T. Baker Jr. Photography Collection-North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC 

A New Vision: Modernist Photography-Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH 

Looking Forward - Looking Back-G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA

Robert Mann Gallery at The AIPAD Photography Show 2012, Robert Mann Gallery, New York

2013

Beyond Belief: 100 Years of the Spiritual in Modern Art -The Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco,

San Francisco, CA 

Focal Points: American Photography Since 1950 -MMoCA - The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI 

Light Sensitive - Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, NC

2014

SEVEN, Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, Portland

2016

Photography and America’s National Parks, George Eastman Museum, Rochester

2017

Beyond Seeing, Elizabeth Houston Gallery, New York

2019

After Virginia, CHART, New York

Masterworks of West Coast Photography, Seagrave Gallery, CA

Bard x HGG, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Aperture Photographs, Aperture Foundation, New York

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, Scheinbaum & Russek Ltd., Santa Fe

2020

Paris Photo New York 2020, Seagrave Gallery, CA