MINOR WHITE, D. [Drid] Williams, Capital Reef, Utah, 1962, 5.5x7.125" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1962, Inscribed in pencil on print verso: Drid Williams 15th 1962. Photographer's address stamp; gallery annotations in pencil.

Minor White took sensitive portraits of students, artists and friends. Like Minor White, Drid Williams had wide ranging academic interests and roots in Portland.

Drid Williams's (1928-2018) childhood dream had been to be a ballet dancer. She studied ballet in Portland, Oregon. During that time Williams worked for Arthur Murray Dance Studio, was a professional ballroom dancer for a short while, and opened her own dance studio, Rehearsal House.

Williams was invited to England by Sadler Wells Ballet. When she returned to the United States, she went to New York City, where she stayed for over a decade, and opened her own dance studio. Williams traveled to Ghana in late 1960's, where she met Edwin Ardenar. He was instrumental in her decision to attend Oxford University, where she earned three master's degrees in anthropology. Williams taught at New York University and earned a Library Science degree in Indiana. She then went to Sydney, Australia as lecturer in aboriginal dance in the Department of Music, the first appointment of its kind in Australia. Williams then went to Eldoret in Kenya as Senior Lecturer at MOI University. It was not a good time politically and she soon returned to the United States and settled in Minnesota. She went to Zhuhai, China with the United International College. After a year and a half she returned to Minnesota, where she continued to teach until her death.

CREDIT: https://thepetersonchapel.com/drid-williams/

Minor White (1908-1976) was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and earned a degree from the University of Minnesota in 1933. In 1938, Minor White moved to Portland, Oregon. There he began his career in photography, first joining the Oregon Camera Club, then taking on assignments from the Works Progress Administration and exhibiting at the Portland Art Museum.

After serving in military intelligence during World War II, Minor White moved to New York City in 1945. He spent two years studying aesthetics and art history at Columbia University under Meyer Schapiro and developing his own distinctive style. He became involved with a circle of influential photographers including Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams; hearing Stieglitz's idea of "equivalents" from the master himself was crucial to the direction of Minor White's mature post-war work.

At Ansel Adams's invitation, Minor White moved back to the West Coast to join the faculty of the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, where he served from 1946 to 1953. Under Minor White, this became the first fine art photography department in the US. Minor White co-founded the influential magazine Aperture in 1952 with fellow photographers Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Barbara Morgan; writer/curator Nancy Newhall; and Newhall's husband, historian Beaumont Newhall. Minor White edited the magazine until 1975.

In 1953 he moved to Rochester, New York and for four years worked as a curator at George Eastman House, and edited their magazine Image. He taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology from 1956 to 1964. Prominent students from this period included Paul Caponigro and Jerry Uelsmann.

Minor White spent the last ten years of his life teaching at MIT where his class on Zone System photography was very popular. It was restricted to seniors and often oversubscribed. In 1970 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship.

CREDIT: Howard Greenberg Gallery
http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/minor-white

Very good. Minor wear.