The Aesthetic Theories

Of
Minor White
 About The Author

Stuart Oring, the author, studied photography under Minor White, Charles Arnold and Ralph
Hattersley at the Rochester Institute of Technology—where, in 1959, he earned a B.F.A.
degree in Photography Illustration. In 1970, he received an M.A. degree in Communication
from American University. His work at the University culminated in the thesis: A Comparative
Investigation of Similarities and Differences in the Aesthetic Theories of Alfred Stieglitz,
Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Minor White. A Considerable amount of material from
that research has been utilized in this publication.

Since 1969, the author has been studying how Synchronicity Systems, such as the
Chinese I Ching, can be used as effective tools in the analysis of photographs. These
methods can provide insights into the psychic state of the photographer at the time a
photograph was made. Thus, traditional methods of looking at pictures can be expanded with
creative new approaches in order to provide the viewer with a greater understanding as to
what a picture might express.

Because of the significance of his work, in the field of visual communication, the author’s
biographical information has been included in such publications as:

 Who’s Who in the World. 1995-

 Who’s Who in America. 1996-
 Who’s Who in the East. 1993-
 Men of Achievement. 1994-
 Cambridge Who’s Who. 2008-
 The Dictionary of International Biography. 1994-

His publications include: A Beginner's Guide to Pictures, Understanding Pictures:

Theories, Exercises, and Procedures, A Master's Guide to Pictures, and A Teacher's
Planning Guide.

i
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Minor White As A Creative Artist 2
The Aesthetic Theories Of Minor White 2
Photography As An Art Form 2
The Creative Cycle 3
Photographs Function As Symbols 3
The Creative Artist And Photography 3
The Four Broad Classes Of Photography 4
Photographic Concepts 5
Minor White's Approach To Craftsmanship 27
Inadequate Craftsmanship And Rationalization 27
The Convincing Print 28
The Replica Print 28
Straight Photography 29
The Characteristics Of Pure Photography 29
Photography Compared To Painting 30
Previsualization 32
The Zone System 33
The Subconscious Mind In Photography 36
The Unconscious Creative Cycle 36
The Photographer's Response To The Subject 37
Literal And Non-Literal Interpretation 38
Chance Or “Happenstance” 39
Expressive And Creative Photography 40
Things For What They Are—Things For What Else They Are 42
Photography Of An Inner State Of Mind 43
Channeling The Spectator's Associations 43
The Record Of An Inner State 43

ii
Types Of Images 44
The Process Of Equivalence 45
Communication By The Equivalent 46
The Photographer's State Of Mind 48
Heightened Awareness 48
The Blank Mind 49
The Sequence 50
Experiencing The Photograph 52
Procedure For The Analysis Of Photographs 54
Empathy And Projection 55
Associations And The Subconscious 56
Characteristics Of The Experience 56
The Experience And Communication 56
Blocks To Understanding 57
Types Of Responses And What They Indicate 61
The Study Of One's Own Photographs 69
Collation Of Photographer's Experiences 69
Prediction Of Visual Experience 70
Evaluation Of Photographs 70
Exercises 71
Memorable Quotations 77
Selected Bibliography 80
Appendix—Selected Minor White Photographs

iii
 Introduction
It was my good fortune to meet Minor White at the Rochester Institute of
Technology, where I first became a student in 1955. I remained in contact with
him through correspondence for many years. In the late 1960's, when I was
working on my Master's Thesis at American University, Minor was kind enough to
invite me to his apartment in Massachusetts so that I could interview him and take
notes from his unpublished manuscript on Conscious Photography. At the time, I
was doing research for my Thesis: A Comparative Investigation Of Similarities
And Differences In The Aesthetic Theories Of Stieglitz, Weston, Adams, And
White. All that Minor asked in return was that I would refrain from publishing my
Thesis because he was hoping to publish his material at some future time.
Minor realized that a camera can tap into the unconscious when he worked in a
“blank” but seeing state. He found that it was possible to communicate with his
inner-self by means of the camera. A photograph could be a mirror of his psyche
—or the manifestation of a message from it. It is possible to drop an idea or
feeling into the unconscious and receive a visual answer in return.
But, in order to do this, it is necessary to understand the image or to “read” it.
So, Minor White developed a way to do this based upon intellectual analysis and
contemplative meditation. He would see what associations would arise within
himself from gazing at a photograph in silence—and then he would subject these
to intellectual analysis based upon concepts of tonal value, lighting, space, and
balance etc. Other things were thrown into the mix—such as the kind of picture it
was and what was known about the photographer. It was important to subject a
photograph to this kind of study in order to understand what it was that it
communicates.
Reading a picture, in a comprehensive way, requires the use of both the
conscious and the unconscious mind. Minor White, Ralph Hattersley and others
laid the groundwork for this approach—but much remains to be done. For
example, my own research has shown that the use of “Synchronicity Systems”,
such as the I Ching, can help to reveal the psychic state of the photographer or
artist at the time a picture was made.
Understanding a picture is like putting together the pieces of a jig-saw puzzle.
Each method that you use in your analysis will help you to understand the picture
a little better. Minor never stopped exploring how to understand more about a
photograph. He realized that verbalization could only provide a limited
understanding about a picture.
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 Minor White As A Creative Artist
As an artist, Minor White nurtured the irrational in himself and others as the
source of creativity. As a teacher, he encouraged intuition, serendipity, breaking
the rules, reconsidering concepts, and working in an illogical manner. He explored
how other disciplines could be used in photography and was interested in such
subjects as: Zen and Zen meditation, contemplative meditation, the theories of
Carl Jung and Jungian psychology, Freudian psychology, the principles of
creativity, the principles of art, Eastern philosophy, religion, astrology, the I Ching,
music, poetry, gestalt therapy and gestalt psychology, photographic history,
photography criticism, hypnotism, the philosophy of Gurdjieff, and mysticism.
The superb accomplishments of Minor White as a photographer, teacher, and
writer are beyond the scope of this work and will therefore not be described here.
The Aesthetic Theories Of Minor White
Conscious photography connects the technical process to the creative process. It
is a state of awareness between people and things—it is possible when there is
inner growth and a mastery over the craft. Learning to photograph in this manner
requires a determined effort to observe the creative process in one's emotional self.
At first, all attention must be given to the human creative process rather than to the
success or failure of the photographs. “Do not look for pictures,” said White, “look
at the subject until it is understood by a conscious you.” When the creative process
is absorbed, there will be more successful photographs than failures. There will be
a merging of the creative process and successful photography.
Photography As An Art Form
Everyone has formless ideas arising in them. Those with creative ability or talent
can give them form. Some people, however, seem to remain unaware of these
ideas stirring in themselves until they see an already formed, or partly formed,
manifestation of it. Photography seems to fit the kind of person remarkably well
who does not know, feel, or sense that an idea is stirring within him until he
stumbles upon a manifestation of it in front of his camera. Stieglitz stated this
phenomenon when he said: “I do not understand anything until I have a
photograph of it.”; and Weston probably meant the same with his phrase, “the
flame of recognition.”

2
 The Creative Cycle
Creative work, for most people, has tides. There is a time to create, and a time to
study. When the tide is out, the time is appropriate to study, to do exercises, and to
read about photography and its related fields of art and human relations. When the
tide comes in again, one has a new knowledge to apply to the creative force surge.
To many photographers, the danger comes when the tide runs out. If they have not
learned creative discipline, or have no instinct to study and do exercises when the
tide is out, they slow down, then stop photographing, and wonder what happened
all the rest of their lives.
Photographs Function As Symbols
Photographs are symbols of life experiences. We may look at a face and see a
deeper truth, that lies beneath the surface. This inner image, replaces in our mind,
the mask that the person presents. This can occur without a change of expression.
When a trained intuition is at work, the facial mask becomes transparent. The
inner image seems to “swim” to the surface and the perceptive photographer is
invariably influenced.
The Creative Artist And Photography
Photography, used as a fine art, is what any artist makes of it. For the analytical
artist, photography is a tool to record his visual curiosity, his visual understanding,
and his visual contemplation of the world. For the objective artist, photography
can reveal the meanings of things and render surfaces with love and beauty. The
subjective artist can use photography as a means of self-expression—simply by
dissociating the subject from its connotations. When photography is used in this
manner, the unconscious mind can be reached through the reading of the
photograph's design. Discarding the connotations of subjects leaves them symbols
that can be read like dreams. The world of the unconscious mind is turned into the
raw material of art.

3
 The Four Broad Classes Of Photography
We may think of photography in terms of four broad classifications of
photographs—the Informational, the Documentary or Reportage, the Pictorial, and
the Equivalent. The Informational classification covers special purpose recording,
but basically it is a photograph that says: This is it and this is the way the camera
saw it. The main purpose of the informational photograph is to inform the mind.
Pictures which exp1ain, instruct, report, or acquaint the mind are informational
photographs. Reading such a photograph depends a great deal on having a
specialized knowledge of the subject.
The Documentary or Reportage photograph acts as a bridge to experience, taking
the viewer to the original event, place or time. There is a bridge in time and space
between the event and the spectator. The photographer attempts to report, yet leave
himself out.
The photograph is a splendid device for holding a transitory instant still long
enough to look at it in leisure One can read character lines in a face; or clues of
costume, gesture, or geography from an event. Both the natural scene and the
social scene can be documented. The documentary photograph allows the
photographer to show relationships and the nature of those relationships.
The photographer may choose to relate the subject to its background or he may
choose not to. The documentary photograph can provide information about a
person, place, event, or a relationship between people. If the photograph is
primarily of one person, it may hold clues about the sex, nationality, race,
occupation, marriage status, mental state, or the type of person you are looking at.
If the photograph is of two or more people, it may show the relationships between
the people as well as their gestures and costumes. If the photograph is of an event,
it may reveal the action of the participants, and the atmosphere or mood
surrounding the event. It the photograph is of a place, it may show: who just left,
how long ago, when they will return, and what the social strata and atmosphere
are. The documentary photograph says: This is it and this is the way I saw it.
The pictorialist, says in effect: This is what I saw and here is how I feel about it.
The Pictorial photograph uses the graphics of the medium and the photographer's
style to augment the content of the photograph. Everything in the photograph
contributes something to the total meaning of the picture. The pictorialist is less
concerned with the subject than the picture it will yield.

4
He uses the camera not so much to record as to stress how he sees. This definition
includes: the salon pictorialists, the pure photographers, the subjectivists, the
modernists, and the future schools and individuals who seek to make manner as
important as subject matter.
White and Chappell defined the Equivalent in the same manner as Stieglitz did.
The Equivalent is a photograph that stands for a feeling that the photographer has
had about something. The subject of the photograph acts as a metaphor of that
feeling. “Feeling” refers here to the photographer's notion of the inner nature of
the subject. In the Equivalent, no attempt is made to imitate the outer features of
the original subject.
Occasionally, photographs can transcend categories. Informational photographs
can be aesthetic, documentary photographs can transcend their subject matter, and
pictorial photographs can transcend both subject matter and style.
PHOTOGRAPHIC CONCEPTS
Concepts About Light
The photographer can become so concerned with light from an exposure point of
view that he forgets about light as a presence in his photographs. The spectator is
not concerned with exposure, but the presence of light in a photograph has an
emotional effect upon him. To the spectator, it becomes very important what kind
of light is present. He is aware of a light that glows as opposed to a light that falls
on objects and casts shadows.
The revealing light of an overcast day creates a different feeling than a
directional 1ight, such as sunlight, which casts shadows and evokes warmth. There
is no such thing as a good or bad light.
Photographers, however, vary in regard to how closely they observe the
qualities of light. Shape and form may be destroyed by shadows. Where light
appears to come from, within the photograph, is very important. The proper light-
ing can evoke the desired emotional response in the spectator, and if the
photographer understands the emotional qualities of light, he will be in a better
position to control the response.
Directional Light is useful because sometimes shadow intensifies a shape. When
the lighting is directional in nature, most of the light within the photograph
appears to come from the same place.

5
 Revealing Light presents everything there is. It makes us conscious of the object
itself, and it creates no blocked-up shadows or highlights. Revealing Light
produces emotional responses which come from the object. It seems to envelope,
and may produce a feeling of luminosity or mild oppression. With directional
lighting, there is an inter-action between the light and the object. The emotions of
the spectator will react both to the object and the light. There is generally a single
light source, but there may also be a weak fill-in light.
Light As A Source creates an awareness of light itself. The light source may be
in the picture, but this is not always the case. The light source seems to become a
part of the light. This lighting is intense and dramatic.
Internal Light is a strange type of lighting where there appears to be a play of
light within the object itself. The light appears to glow, and it produces a mystical,
other-worldliness type of feeling.
Play Of Light is the name given to a kind of light that lies outside the picture;
and plays on objects, with objects, or creates dancing shadows.
Concepts About Space
The sense of three dimensional space, which we sense in a photograph, is an
illusion; nevertheless, photographic space affects us emotionally and we respond
to it. Space can be primary to the meaning of the photograph. Limited Space
creates the feeling of intimacy or confinement; sometimes, a mixture of both. It
can suggest: closeness, comfort, intimacy, tightness, imprisonment, or a feeling of
claustrophobia. Sometimes, however, the feelings of limited space that are
experienced in a photograph come more from other elements present in the picture
than from sensations of space.
Moderately Deep Space or Medium Space creates a feeling of comfort. Space
seems to expand somewhat within the photograph.
Deep Space or Far Space suggests distance, remoteness, loneliness, wonder, or a
nostalgic feeling about space. It can be achieved by: (1) using both near and far
objects within the photograph, (2) the use of the ground plane seen from near to
far, and (3) the use of the inclined plane of both ground and sky. It can suggest an
uninhibited feeling or a sense of independence.
White used the concepts of Planemetric Space and Recessional Space to explain
how movement into space is accomplished. When the planes in the photograph are
parallel to the picture plane, the situation is called Planemetric.
6
 When the planes in the picture are diagonal to the picture plane, the situation is
called recessional. These names come from Heinrich Wolfflin's book, Principles of
Art History. Recessional Space is more dynamic and has a feeling of faster
movement than Planemetric Space. Recessional Space seems to lead us into the
picture; Planemetric Space seems to block us out of the picture.
When we speak about planes in a photograph, it is important to remember that
planes are not always solid. Planes can be perforated, as is the case with screen
doors, fences, and windows. Some planes are implied, for example, a row of
objects going over a hill. A plane can be nothing more than a thin row of trees on
the edge of a pond. There are occasions when the monocular vision of the camera
affects the rendering of depth. Space can be collapsed or telescoped. When space
is telescoped, the various planes within the photograph come together even though
in reality they are apart.
If there is no way of telling the size of the area shown in a photograph, and if a
part of the subject is not oriented to the rest of the subject, the subject may appear
to shift in space from near to far. Parts pop in and out, or fluctuate within space.
Fluctuating Space lacks both the intimate feeling of Limited Space and the
nostalgia of Deep Space. It produces a kind of strange, shifting, insecure feeling of
the viewer—or it may suggest change or transformation.
Concepts About Form
Openness and closedness are feeling states that we encounter daily. Every
photograph that we see has some kind of relationship to openness and closedness.
Open Form is identified with the incompleteness of all or most of the objects
seen—heads cut in half, parts of cars, etc. Closed Form exhibits all of the objects
complete—whole heads, or whole bodies, or all of a car. It isolates a fragment of
reality and evokes the sensation of completeness within the picture. In Closed
Form, the directions are parallel to the edges of the picture. They are either
horizontal, vertical, or both horizontal and vertical. Closed Form shows the major
subject entirely within the frame. It seems to isolate the subject from the world and
impose some sort of man-made order upon it. It may be too static. It produces an
awareness of order, solidity, and classic stability. This kind of a photograph should
be provided with a wide border and framed. There is a feeling that a little world
lives an independent existence within the picture frame.

7
 In Open Form, the major directions within the picture area are at an angle, not
parallel, to the format. The directions are diagonal, circular, or curved. The form is
cut by the frame, and not all of the subject is enclosed. The subjects may consist of
parts rather than total entities.
Open Form gives the suggestion that something is going on outside or beyond
the picture area. There is an emotional implication of cutting. At times, it may be
too chaotic.
Form is indicative of our own period. It provides an awareness of the romantic,
the spontaneous, disorder, and instability. This kind of a photograph requires as
little isolation as possible, and is effective with bleed mounting. Open Form gives
the feeling that the photograph is a window onto the objective world.
Concepts About Tone
The tonal distribution within a photograph has an emotional effect upon the
spectator. Tones may augment the statement, soften or tone down the statement, or
produce a second statement. Contrast, for example, augments the dynamic. Low
contrast suggests passivity.
The dark tones seem gloomy, morbid, heavy, or suggest heavy oppression, night,
weight, mystery, death, and desolation. The middle gray: suggest reality but are
not necessarily uninteresting. The light tones suggest another worldly type of
feeling. They are used a great deal in fashion photography, and have an ethereal,
floating quality. These tones are exciting, but they are sometimes associated with
artificiality. They can convey a degree of optimism or joy. They can also be fresh,
bright or frivolous.
Concepts About Value Patterns
The light, middle, and dark value patterns will not always conform to the shape
of the objects. They may set up a somewhat different pattern and consequently the
effect will be different. This does not occur frequently, but when it does occur a
hidden source of evocation may erupt.
The shape of the dark pattern can sometimes be controlled by exposure. The
shape of the light pattern can often be controlled by altering the development time.
The middle value pattern can rarely be controlled. It is important to be aware of
the fact, that sometimes the value patterns of the subject cannot be altered by
exposure and development.

8
 Sometimes they can only be altered by changes in the camera viewpoint. The
photographer should be aware of the various value patterns in the subject, because
they will be present in the image and have a subtle evocative power. What the
value patterns of a photograph evoke in the spectator, may or may not be the same
as what the subject evokes.
Concepts About Objects
The size of objects in the photograph affects the spectator in still other ways.
Large objects, that take up most of the picture area, seem monumental,
overpowering, and uncomfortable. Medium size objects suggest reality and a
feeling of comfort. Small, spotty objects make us feel nervousness and suggest
busyness.
The photographer must be concerned with negative space or the shape between
two objects. Sometimes, the shape of the negative space suggests a third object.
Painters and artists are very much aware of negative space. In photography, it is
rarely possible to deliberately use negative space. The photographer, however,
needs to be aware of the shapes that negative space creates or his images may
reveal things that everyone sees but himself.
Concepts About Balance
If the basic structure works, the photograph will work. Diverse elements can be
put into the same area and pulled together, if a photograph balances.
In a photograph, tensions are built up by directions and weight. The closeness or
proximity of objects builds up more tension than when objects or lines actually
meet. If the directions within a photograph do not balance, tension is of primary
importance and it must be considered.
Tensions, within a photograph, may be resolved by: (1) directions which are
opposite and equal, (2) directions which oppose one another at right angles, (3)
directions which oppose at other than right angles, (4) directions which meet, and
(5) space that absorbs weight or direction.
The size, tone, or color of objects may affect their apparent weight. A black mass
may feel heavier than a light colored one. As a general rule, the size of an object
affects its apparent weight, but this is not always the case. Large forms seem to
have less weight than a collection of little ones.

9
 Balance can be created by both nature and man. It may be purely psychological,
such as the feeling that we are able to escape to one side within a photograph. But,
if it is not psychological in nature, it can be classified according to type. White
defined three primary types of balance: Formal, Asymmetrical (Informal), and
Intuitive or Occult Balance.
Intuitive Balance, or Occult Balance, is subtle and intuitive. It indicates the
movement of action, whereas if the design is formal or symmetrical it indicates the
movement of standing still. In Occult Balance, unlike parts are arranged around a
balancing point, and they hold the total in equilibrium by their pull.
Concepts About Layout
Layout is the relationship of photographs to a page. The single photograph may
be presented in a great variety of ways. Where the photograph should be placed
depends upon the photograph itself and its use once it is mounted up.
The best layout is made by looking at the photograph first. A photograph with
direction may be used as a device to give direction, especially in exhibitions. Two
photos, both pulling toward the main body of photographs, may serve as an end of
phrase in exhibitions. An end of paragraph may be achieved by two photos with
opposite directions. Photographs may be balanced by a play of directions. The
method that should be used depends upon whether the form of the photographs is
Open or Closed and whether the balance is Formal or Occult. Closed Form stands
isolation by the mount best. This kind of a photograph seems to fit better if it is
well centered. Open Form photographs lend themselves to a great variety of
layout. What goes on in the photograph must be considered, but there are two
principle types of balancing that may be used: Mirror images where photo A is
placed opposite photo A1 and X-Type where similar photos are placed in opposite
corners.
The terms Formal Balance and Occult Balance apply to layout as well as to the
type of balance within a photograph. Formal Balance includes the single
photograph centered, mirror image, x-variety, and tic-tac-toe type varieties. Infor-
mal Balance or Occult is achieved by the effect, weight, and directions in a given
area.

10
 Color also may be used. Directions can be balanced by: (1) absorption, where
space uses up energy; (2) counter direction, where the direction of one photograph
is offset by the directional pull of another; and (3) right angle direction, where the
directional pull of one photograph is opposed by the directional pull of another
photograph which is at a right angle to it. If the main direction of the photograph is
from left to right, and the photograph is to be balanced by absorption, the
photograph can be mounted on the left side of the mount with text or space
absorbing the space to the photo's right. If the photograph is to be balanced by a
second photo, which has a directional pull in the opposite direction, we may
choose to use the second photo with the first in some kind of X-Type or Mirror
Image layout.
Weight may be used to balance a layout just as it may be used to balance a single
photograph. Dark photographs seem heavier than light ones, and a small
photograph that has predominantly white or black areas will balance a larger pho-
tograph that has predominantly gray areas. A large dark photograph may be
balanced by a small light one.
An exhibition or display is a logical step that begins with a capricious shifting of
prints on a table and ends with a controlled “montage” on a panel or wall. The
organization of the prints can be worked out, but there is a tendency for the prints
to take over and develop their own pattern. The first phase is one of exploration
and discovery. What is the total statement that a group of photographs make when
they are treated as a “montage”? The interplay of prints is not only left to right and
right to left, but top to bottom, bottom to top, and diagonally.
White called the next step a “free montage” phase: This can be described as a
configuration caused by prints that touch, but not necessarily the full lengths of
their sides. Lines in one print lead into lines of the next and cause the prints to
proliferate freely like the unpredictable configurations of a game of dominoes.
This seems to be one of the most appropriate ways of displaying miniature camera
prints.
Another part of the display phase is the exploration of audience participation
and response. The spectator will see new statements and connotations that the
photographer never noticed.

11
The print on display is not so much a bridge between the spectator and
photographer as it is a starting point for the spectator's independent imagination.
Exhibitions may be one man shows, group shows, or theme shows. The layout
for a one man show depends upon the photographs available, and the space in
which you have to work. The quantity of images can be as important as the
individual images themselves.
White felt that directional variety and effective placement of the photographs are
the most important things to consider in an exhibition. All of the photographs, that
are available for an exhibition, will not be of the same high intensity; but low
intensity photographs may be used to build up the high intensity photographs.
If the photographer did not work in sequences, a simple placement of the
photographs would be required. The photographs can be placed in groups by
categories. Group l, for example, might consist of portraits, Group 2 could be
nudes, Group 3 might be rocks, and Group 4 might be landscapes. If the
photographs are mixed, the spectator will get the feeling that he has seen the show
before; but when they are presented in this manner, he will feel that he must go on
to see the entire show.
The show can be set up with each panel repeating the other panel or with each
panel having a character of its own. If the panels have overlapping tonalities, the
spectator will get the feeling that if he has seen one he has seen them all.
All shows have their limitations as to the space, money, and material available.
There are sometimes reasons why certain work appears. Sometimes, it is necessary
to have everyone represented in a class show. Sometimes, it is necessary to include
prints that lend variety. In one man shows, the important questions are: Have you
selected a representative group of work and have you selected the best of it? When
you start putting the work together on the wall, the wall arrangement will quite
often determine the necessity of selecting some of the rejected photographs.
Some shows are group efforts—some are individual efforts. One person should
be in charge in group efforts to expedite matters. Big exhibitions cannot be done
by one person. A little show of 50-100 prints can be done by one person if he has
the help of someone to put the prints up where he tells them to put them. There are
no hard and fast rules.

12
 The Classicist-Romanticist Concept
The Classicist sticks to the unique characteristics of the medium. The classicist
attitude produces an intellectual order. Academic rules are important—the
arrangements and balances are formal. The art that it produces provide an
intellectual pleasure, and its structures are to he admired. It deals primarily with
things as they are, but includes things underneath the surface also. The Classicistic
concepts include: Revealing or Directional Light, Near Planemetric Space, and
Closed Form. The photograph generally consists of a few simple elements and
these objects are photographed for what they are rather than for what else they
might become.
The Romanticist explores the potentials of the medium. All restrictions are
thrown into the winds. The Romantic attitude is one of emotional logic and
sentimentality. The Romanticist concepts are: Internal Light, Light as a Source,
Far Transitional Space, and Open Form. The photograph generally consists of
many complex elements which are generally photographed for what else they are.
The Concept Of Essence
There are two concepts that lie at the heart of unique photography. The concept
of essence is one, the concept of experience is the other.
Essence refers to that underlying strata of meaning from which all secondary
characteristics radiate. Hence it is the core, the heart, the central motive, in short
the essence of a person, place, event, or gesture from which the whole of person,
place or event may be reconstructed.
To reach essence, the photographer cannot work as the painter does. The
photographer cannot pile up characteristics until an essence is synthesized, he
must wait until a face, gesture, or place goes “transparent” and thereby reveals the
essence underneath. This exact instant, when the subject bares its inner core is a
transitory and fleeting moment. It is never repeated exactly. The expressive
function of the camera is to make photographs that reveal the essence of the
subject along with the facts. It is difficult to photograph essence. Essence
photographs are rare because only rarely can the photographer put himself in place
of something else and at the same time be aware of himself or his own existence.
The photographer should be aware of what he projects when he photographs. It
is possible to project oneself onto the subject without being aware of it.

13
White stated that there are five “bodies” from which we can project: our body of
associations, “this reminds me of a picture I saw before;” our body of ideas and
concepts, “this fits into type C or class 2 or form 6;” our kinesthetic body, “my
hand and fingers sympathize;” our emotional body, “out of my emotional
repertoire this stirs my feelings of 1ove;” our intuitive body, which most of us
know so little about. We can project from any of these bodies or parts of them. The
only thing that is not a projection is the essence of some thing or someone else.
Essence And The Dominant Image
The dominant image photographer believes that in the right light surfaces will
reveal the inner meaning of the subject. He believes that every subject inherently
contains one photographic image which can reveal the facts of the place, person,
situation, or object—and when the light is right, some of the emotional feeling.
The photographer whose attitude is primarily “dominant” assumes that every
subject has a dominant image. White explained the difference between Essence
and Dominant Image as a difference in the relationship to facts: In making
Dominant Images the photographer when he must will sacrifice feeling to keep the
unmistakable likeness—truth to facts.
The photographer with Essence on his mind will distort the facts if there is no
other way to crystallize essence. Essence points at the uniqueness of the place,
situation, person or thing. Consequently, more often than not, some fractions—
some part—will crystallize the whole of which is a blob. That part standing for the
whole.
Essence belongs to the object and not to the photographer. After a period of
time, however, the fascination with objective essences can turn into introspection.
If this happens, the photographer may recognize that there is a kind of “chemical”
union of himself with a place, person, situation, or thing.
The Dominant Image and Essence Image are both concerned with Things For
What They Are. With the Essence Image, the photographer tries to work from the
intuitive or sensed reality of the subject. In both types of images, the attitude of the
photographer is to find the wonder and revelation of a subject through the direct
experience of the “thing for what it is.”

14
 The Concept Of Experience
Experience refers to that part of an event, place, situation, or person that may be
shared with others by means of the photograph. Edward Weston evokes the
experience of beauty in his photographs, Ansel Adams evokes the experience of
goodness, W. Eugene Smith evokes the experience of truth, Alfred Stieglitz evokes
the experience of transcendence, and Ruth Burnhard evokes the experience of the
mystical. The Concept of Experience is a useful concept when trying to come at
the problem of a particular photograph's relation to a work of art, because it allows
a direct approach to the photograph itself. If the photograph evokes the experience
of beauty, truth, or goodness or what the spectator associates with the aesthetic
experience, then the photograph fulfills one of the functions of a work of art.
Concepts About Portraiture
The duration of a portrait session should be one of growing rapport and
deepening friendship. The subject and the photographer create in one another, and
the camera is hardly more than a recording device for an experience between two
people.
If the photographer loses himself in the individual he is photographing, the
subject can sometimes very readily take the situation over. Instead of the
photographer getting the kind of photograph he wants, he will get what the subject
somehow or other, accidentally gives him. This may or may not be better than
what he wanted. The photographer may have to talk, suggest, play music, or act in
order to make the subject reveal himself.
Through imitation, the subject will be more likely to be what you want, if you
are what you want him to be. Part of trying to be what you want the individual to
be is going to be physical. By non-verbal direction, you at least have to move your
body in such a way that the person who is responding is going to come with you.
The photographer can over smile, overact and overdo things because the
individual in front of you is not likely to respond enough if you don't overact. Or
the other way around, you may have to underplay it thoroughly because they
respond too fast. Even if you don't know what your face is looking like you can
wiggle it all over the place until you get the expression you want. The subject of a
portrait is not unlike an actor or a dancer. He needs to get a correlation between
what he looks like on the outside and what it feels like to him. If he can do this, he
will be able to convey the visual image that he desires.

15
 Portraiture is commonly thought of as a pleasing likeness but it should be a
penetration of character. It should reveal the uniqueness of the individual. The
portrait photographer should ask himself: What makes this person different from
another? And, What are the essential characteristics of this person? The inner
personality of the individual must come through if you are trying to show him as
he is. If you impose your own personality on the subject, you are revealing what
else he is.
The fight against camera consciousness goes on always. People ignore, ask
questions, show suspicion, mug, and play dead. This is not usually what the
photographer wants. He wants intimacy, friendliness, the essence of the inner
person, or the individuality of the person.
Many portrait subjects wish to be flattered, but flattery must be done in a deep
manner. Technical tricks to achieve flattery, such as soft focus and retouching, are
a superficial means of handling the problem. Instead, the person should be given
the best the photographer has in himself. This type of flattery doesn't depend on
negative retouching or soft focus lenses. By direction, the photographer should
attempt to bring the best of the individual out on his face. The reason that many
photographers photograph only the great or the beautiful is because these people
do not require flattery. They may be done as they are.
People may imitate pictures they have seen, or bear resentment. They put up a
mask when they are photographed. To remedy this situation, photograph children
or people who don't care. Otherwise, there are two ways to handle this type of
subject: to work unobtrusively, or to make an environmental portrait where the
person is revealed through the background. A background may have importance,
with the subject responding to its importance. Elements may be used to give
secondary meaning through symbolism: Specks in the background hint at stars or
infinity while lighter planes above another may indicate something beyond.
A single picture can only be a fraction of the subject's personality, although
essential fractions of the subject's personality can make up a collective portrait.
The photographer's personality enters in also. Certain qualities of the
photographer, such as strength or poignancy, are intentionally or unintentionally
transmitted to the portrait. The trained photographer should either leave himself in
as much as possible or out as much as possible.
For truth in portraiture, we should see the individual. In extremely honest
portraiture, a portrait photographer must show the sitter and leave himself out.
16
In the case of Karsh, the powerful photograph has become a landmark. The
question is: Does what you see in the portrait belong exclusively to the sitter
The length of exposure is in relation to the amount of personality that can be
captured in a given length of time—minutes, l minute, 1 second, or l/5000 th of a
second. Although some people don't respond to one type of exposure or the other,
slightly more personality may come out in longer exposures, and slightly more
spontaneity may be achieved through strobe. Short exposures are suited to the
spontaneous or transitory whereas more of the personality shows in long
exposures. Today the photographer has complete control over exposure.
There are three layers of truth which the portrait may reveal: surface revelation,
the outer and inner character of the person, and that aspect of the individual which
is normally kept to oneself. Surface truth is concerned with outer appearance and
the outward truth about the person. Inner truth is concerned with expressions and
characteristics about the individual. It penetrates the surface, and goes down to a
psychological basis or a state of mind. Sometimes, a state of mind will be revealed
when the photographer attempts to reveal the personality of the subject. Character
revelation is typical of the informal portrait that shows the uniqueness of a person.
If there is rapport between the photographer and the subject, the feeling that the
photographer experiences may come through in a photograph to a spectator. When
the subject is interested in something else, a different feeling will exist in the
photograph. Even when portraits are made under close scrutiny, things slip in and
the photographer may get something different than he intended. Things may be
revealed about the individual which they know about, but haven't seen. If
psychological revelation is in order, this may be valuable. But, this is only
desirable in the informal portrait, not in commercial portraiture.
Concepts About Architectural Photography
The architectural photographer can interpret subject matter or merely record and
let the facts speak for themselves. Architectural photography lies between the
extremes of personal interpretation and the spirit of the architecture. The personal
interpretation must somehow capture the spirit of the architecture, or else the
photograph may be an obvious example of interpretation that exceeds the bounds
of architectural photography.

17
 The architectural photographer should learn to approach his subject with
intellectual knowledge and a craftsmanship of feeling. “Knowing where a given
example fits in history, or in the economics, or the technical features,” White
wrote, “will help slant the photography.” The feeling side is direct and wordless—
a way of evoking the insight needed to reach the essence of the architecture. The
more experience that the photographer has, the better he will know how and when
to bring his intellect into play and how and when to let his feelings take over.
The architectural photographer can emphasize spirit over facts, or facts over
spirit. Part of the choice will depend on whether the photographer is basically a
Romanticist or a Classicist, however, the choice should depend on the style of
architecture that we are dealing with. Classical, if the architecture is Classical or
Gothic; Romantic, perhaps, if dealing with Baroque or Modern.
The Classicist-Romanticist concepts can be extended to architectural
photography. Classical or Gothic architecture, for example, can be photographed
with Revealing Light, Planemetric Space, Closed Form, and in the manner of
Things As They Are. Baroque or Modern architecture can be photographed in the
manner of Things As They Become, using Recessional Space, Open Form, and
light that is a Source, Internal, or Direct. In one sense, the interpretive mode may
be thought of as Romanticist; and the things-speak-for- themselves mode is
Classicist. The professional photographer must be able to evoke the spirit of the
Romanticist or Classicist mode with equal competence. He may be asked to
photograph Gothic architecture one day and a Greek revival house the next. To do
this, he must learn a craftsmanship of feeling by which he can expand his own
temperament as far as possible.
The photographer should be around the architecture awhile and should be aware
of its influence before starting to photograph. Architecture has evidence of the
architect, the inhabitants, and the building itself. The photographer must be aware
of these things and somehow interpret them. One approach that can be used is
direct and emotional, the other is indirect and intellectual. The direct and
emotional approach requires the photographer to come face to face with the
building. Any building has spirit of some kind. The direct approach requires
concentration, observation, and the feel of the building. The indirect and
intellectual approach requires research of the architect's ideas, trends, and styles,
etc. It requires a study of architecture, what architects have to say, and a study of
architectural photographs.

18
 Whatever is characteristic of the architecture—space, form and function, or
design—should be brought out and emphasized in the photograph. The
photographer should not intrude between the spectator and the architecture. The
problem is to avoid a dull unimaginative rendering, and at the same time avoid a
personal rendering which expresses something else. The photographer should ask
himself: What is the purpose of the building and what is the aim of the architect?
Above all else, the architectural photographer must have faith that surfaces can
reveal inner states.
Concepts About Commercial Photography
In commercial photography, it is essential to eliminate all ideas which do not
apply to the meaning of the photograph. One way to emphasize a subject is to use
Open Form with parts of things, to emphasize a closed Form subject in the center.
Advertising photographs are concerned with the essences of things; the inner
qualities of things as well as surface characteristics. The advertising photographer
must present some essential underlying quality of the subject.
Concepts About The Camera
The view camera allows the creative artist to observe and to contemplate the
world. The hand camera allows the artist to participate in events as fast as they
happen. With the view camera the photographer slowly distills; with the hand
camera he rapidly acts in action, taking part while probing with it, penetrating with
it to whatever truth he can understand. White had a concept for the view camera,
which he called: Isolation Of A Completed Experience. The view camera virtually
lifts some visual experience out of the world and makes it a new one for the
spectator to experience from the print. The miniature camera tends to make the
photographer feel that he is a part of the world, and taking part in the activity of
people. The photograph is a remembered image made visible. When the spectator
looks at this, he takes part in the photographer's participation.
The physical construction of each camera determines the seeing of the
photographer. The tripod bound view camera functions best in situations in which
there is time and place to set it up. There must be time to compose at leisure, and
to solve the subject's problems of exposure and mood content. View camera work
allows the photographer time to fully experience what is seen. There is time to
become emotionally involved with the subject and to understand it while you are
looking.

19
 There is a beginning, middle, and end to the reaction. A sense of completion is
characteristic of view camera work and the print must serve the spectator as a
complete experience. The sheet film feature makes it possible to treat each
negative individually and to control the contrast of each individual negative.
The miniature camera allows photographing and being photographed to become
a natural relationship between people. It is almost as though the photographer has
suddenly become transparent. Since there is no need to experience a picture while
exposing, the photographer can experience the event. The photographer is free to
lose himself in what is happening—he is free to become involved in any
experience he can see. It is possible to photograph in a state of high tension and
excitement, and at the same time be extremely sensitive. The photographer
experiences the moods of tragedy, comedy, love, or hate after the event. In typical
miniature camera work, the photographer sees and participates in the event
simultaneously; he experiences the event during the printing stage.
Seeing can be so fast that there is no experience, only a recognition that
something important is taking place. There is no more than a sensing that
something significant is happening without having the least idea of what the
significance is. The photographer does not have to judge, criticize, evaluate or
experience at the time of exposure. The “explored negative” technique lets him
experience in the leisure of printing what he sensed at the time of exposure.
The high maneuverability of the small camera permits it to be used
spontaneously. It speeds up seeing by: allowing seeing to be incomplete prior to
exposure, and by eliminating elaborate exposure studies. In practice, meter
readings and exposure-development ratios are made once at the beginning of a
shooting period.
Roll film makes development the same for every negative. Consequently, the
exposure must be adjusted to one developing time. Contrast control through the
control of exposure and development is limited, and must be divided between the
negative development and printing processes.
The creative activity of the photographer is largely forced to be divided between
seeing and printing. He is forced from the positive knowledge of previsualization
to the not-so-positive situation of exploration.

20
 The negative is used as a new source of experience. What the photographer sees,
at the moment of exposure, is not considered final. It is a preliminary step or a
kind of sketch with implications which are intensified in printing. The ideal
negative for the miniature camera should contain printable detail throughout from
the lowest to highest light reflectances. From such a negative a routine of printing
high key, low key, over, under, and normal scale will uncover all the possibilities
inherent in the negative. Not only are the accidental tone relations explored, but
also, by cropping, the various formal possibilities.
The accidents of seeing, which were not seen at the moment of exposure, are
investigated at leisure. Then out of all the various print statements that can be
made by exploring one negative, the photographer can select the one that fits his
mood at the time of printing. This is in complete contrast to the view camera work,
where the photographer forces out of the negative what he remembers was put into
it.
The final print statement may be different from the photographer's original
mood, but if he is willing to accept full responsibility that the statement made is
one he can make, then the work has creative validity. If the photographer lets the
accident lead him into making statements that are false to himself, the whole work
is of no significance. The view camera and the miniature camera need to be fully
exploited for their own unique possibilities. The rationale or working method for
the miniature camera is one of discovery and of using the accidental intelligently.
The Exposure-Development Phase is affected by three concepts: prolific exposures
which make working by the roll both feasible and valid; rapid exposures, which let
seeing and exposure nearly coincide; and negative control.
In view camera technique, all control of seeing is localized in the negative.
Printing is a mechanical materialization of the remembered image. In miniature
camera technique, the photographer's control is only started in the negative—it
must be completed in printing.
The Printing Phase is affected by the concept and rationale of the camera. In
view camera work, the negative is made to contain one unique statement. In
miniature camera work, it is thought to contain more than one. A full exploration
of the negative is necessary in order to find these statements, and so the negative is
submitted to tonal alterations, cropping, and size variations on the enlarger. “This
exploration,” said White, is for new possibilities, for things not seen or even
thought of at the time of exposure or before. The camera is used as a research tool
to bring the accidental into control.
21
 The miniature camera can move all the way around a theme, and penetrate it so
readily, that many pictures are available. In this manner, the objective can be given
a three-dimensionality that no single photograph can give.
Audience participation is an enormous field of exploration for the photographer.
Other people can sometimes point out implications of the photographs that the
photographer could never see or imagine for himself. The Display-Phase is
affected by the participation of the audience and the concept of single prints
treated as units of a group.
The Seeing Phase is affected by the kind of camera that is used. The miniature
eye-level camera channels the seeing of a man in a different way than either the
view camera or waist-level camera. The miniature snatches the instant of
revelation, the view camera captures the moment of vision. The one is
spontaneous and intuitive, the other is contemplative and gives evidence of
ordered thinking. The eye-level miniature is intimate because it is directly on the
axis of sight between eye and subject; the view camera and waist-level camera
tend to be more impersonal. The Seeing Phase is also affected by the concept of
recognition. The discoveries of the camera, which the photographer perceives in
the printing and display phases, are made to work for him when he is photo-
graphing.
A knowledge of both the Zone System and its short-cut methods is essential to
the miniature cameraman: Where there is time for elaborate calculations the
system lets the photographer plan special kinds of negatives for special
interpretive problems. When speed is essential the short-cuts make eye and camera
one instrument. The distinguishing concept of this phase is exposure by the roll as
contrasted with carefully shooting one frame at a time. The concept is linked to the
nature of the miniature camera to move rapidly all around its theme.
The miniature cameraman shoots as many rolls as is necessary to keep abreast of
a situation. Machine gun tactics can be kept from deteriorating into sloppy seeing
by disciplining every frame of a roll to be the best the eye can see. If a situation
builds to a climax, the cameraman can stay right with it to the peak. If it collapses,
the film can be discarded.
There are essentially four steps in the Printing Phase: (l) contact proofs, (2)
enlarged proofs, (3) tonal scale proofs, and (4) final prints. Since selection goes on
at each step, the final set of prints is not a collection of single prints that somehow
fit together, but a group of pictures that have belonged together, or have grown
together, from the start. Exploration uncovers which photographs belong together.
22
 Contact prints serve the photographer in two ways: They help the photographer
make his selection of the negatives that he will print, and provide preliminary
indications of cropping. Enlarged and cropped proofs enable the photographer to
discover what the camera has discovered on its own. They are printed in the
middle of the tonal scale in order to make visible every last iota of substance the
negative contains on both ends of the scale.
The Printing Phase is often a time of discovery: There may be over or under
exposure, unintentional solarization, camera or object movement, or faces and
materials which are out of focus. The photographer may discover circumstances,
situations, or space relationships that he did not see at the time of exposure. If the
photographer is dishonest, he may claim them as his own; but they should be con-
sidered as “sketches” or hints of ideas that can be experimented with in other
photographs. After the photographer experiments and digests these ideas, they will
really become his own. The lucky accident, through experimentation and
digestion, can be brought under control and used to serve the aesthetic aims of the
photographer.
Photographs clearly describe our inner selves, but because photography is
deceptively impersonal, most people do not realize how much of themselves they
(and others) can read in their prints. Since the camera stands between man and the
world, it can reveal much about both. Shooting can be so rapid with the miniature
camera that critical thinking at the time of exposure is suspended. Later, in the
Printing Phase or Display Phase, the photograph may mirror the mental state or
personality facet of the photographer which existed at the time the photograph was
made. The photograph reveals a great deal about the inner workings of the
photographer—to the psychologist, if not to the photographer himself. Another
important aspect of discovery takes place in the Enlarged Proof stage. Seeing and
exposing can be so nearly simultaneous that the photographer will feel no more
than a sense of importance at the time of exposure. The exposure may occur before
the full significance of the event is grasped, and the event passes so rapidly that
there is only time to half experience it.
When this occurs, the photographer must wait until he sees the print to find
what he had intuitively felt. The proof prints may become the first contact with the
experience photographed! The experience is not at the time of exposure but at the
Printing Phase. This lapse of time, between the moment of exposure and the
moment of discovery, is significant.

23
 The concept of the print as the first original experience is almost the antithesis of
view camera esthetic where the print is a record of something fully understood—
even if not quite fully digested—before exposure. This is perhaps the most
important concept in this rationale of exploration.
Tonal Scale Proofs are selections from the Enlarged Proofs which are printed for
standard variations. The negative can be printed in several standard ways; such as
high and low key, and short, full, and over-scaled to uncover any other
unsuspected statements. This should not be thought of as printing in slightly
different ways to get the “best” print. The negative is treated to severe changes to
find “what else” it says. The differences may be surprisingly great, and not just
variations on a theme. White said: “Some negatives can be printed in only one
way; they seem to contain only one statement.”
Apparently the contrast range and detail structure is not the only factor that
makes exploratory printing possible. Actual tone distribution, chiaroscuro, and
subject matter have much to do with it.
When the photographer has made a rigid analysis of the statements in each
printing variation, he should know all that each negative contains. By this time,
through the process of elimination, the negatives and prints from which to work up
the final group will have been selected. The prints can be laid out, shuffled,
assembled, grouped and sequenced, and reshuffled to discover which ones belong
together and to encourage “free” growth to appear. Many different statements will
be discovered that were never anticipated at the time of exposure. This opens up a
whole new area of discovery and exp1oration.
The prints are like words in a vocabulary; the order of the prints affects the
meanings of the statements—like word order in a poem. The order of “reading” is
not only left to right but in all directions at once. Exploration takes the direction of
finding the sentences that the prints will form. One sequence of prints may give a
respectful twist to a situation, another may make it funny or tragic.
The photographer, while he looks, shuffles, and tries to find the hidden statement
in a large group of prints, experiences something beyond what he felt at the time
of seeing.

24
This grip or hold, that the photographs have upon him, will not be released until
some statement out of the many possible ones “jells” for him; That which might
have been half felt at exposure frequently grows during this period, comes to a
climax in some form not previously known, and during this period the first great
overwhelming experience of the prints as a whole comes to an end. If a statement
jells of its own accord, or seems to, the photographer has an easy time. If not, he
has to coerce it into shape.
Contrast and local tone control should balance in the entire set of final prints.
When the final prints make up a sequence, it is better to print in sequence so the
emotional line is followed. The set will be re-experienced as a sequence and the
prints will acquire greater vitality. The Final Print Stage is not an exploratory
period. It is a time for getting out of the negative what has been promised. The
photographer can control the Display Phase to the extent that he can control
cropping, word copy, and whether the print is displayed with or without borders.
The view camera isolates experience to such an extent that it requires borders on
prints to isolate the print from its surroundings in a manner that matches the
feeling of the subject. The miniature camera reverses isolation. Its prints feel better
without borders because to be less isolated is nearer the feeling of the subject—
such prints are like patches ripped out of the whole cloth or slices out of life.
Instead of isolating experiences from reality, the miniature camera seems to
embrace reality and participate in it. The action centered in the print is frequently
linked visibly to action beyond the borders of the print. White said that perhaps it
is because of this rich linkage to implied action outside of the print, that many
miniature camera prints look misplaced or inadequate on bordered mounts.
Another reason why many miniature camera prints look misplaced when
isolated, is because they simply are not complete enough to benefit by isolation.
While the miniature camera can produce the single print, the single print is con-
contrary to its rationale. It derives benefits from an abundance of images. This is
contrary to view camera technique where the single print is complete and self-
sustaining within itself.
One of the benefits of the miniature is what can be called interdependence of
prints. Instead of each print mutually excluding each other, they can mutually
enhance one another. The flow of images depends on the organization of various
intensities of individual pictures to reach a climax.

25
This idea of interdependence in miniature camera prints is not a means to rescue
slipshod seeing; but a means of turning into a whole statement, the most intense
images time and the situation provides to the eye. Sometimes the entire meaning
of a situation is two or more images, not one. The miniature camera can
adequately handle either situation.
All of this analytical activity of darkroom, display wall and audience reading is
carried over to field practice by a mechanism White called “recognition”. The
mental-emotional integration of this mechanism is quite simple: First, there is a
store of images, experience, ego problems, ideals, fears, which the man brings to
his seeing at the start. Second, during the activity of seeing they are matched
against the images in the visual world, like matching colors. This is done with
some conscious effort and a great deal of unconscious participation. At the
moment of matching or “recognition” there is a feeling of importance at least, and
sometimes a merciless impact. This in turn is secured by exposure. We can say that
“recognition” is the trigger of exposure.
In view camera work, the lapse between recognition and exposure may be
relatively long. There is time for analysis, and time to criticize the image and idea.
Exposure sums up the entire experience. In miniature camera work, time is
telescoped until recognition and exposure happen almost simultaneously. There is
no time for criticism. Analysis, criticism, and the experience of the event are left to
the printing phases. The print can reveal what was recognized, and so it can act as
the original experience for the photographer.
The new images that the photographer discovers in his prints can be added to his
visual storehouse. The whole exploratory role of the miniature camera is one of
giving new images through the mechanism of recognition. Through this process
the accidental is deliberately controlled; and through it also the blind spots of the
individual can be uncovered and bypassed. Analysis helps to sink the images
deeply into the photographer's mind, and to help him digest them. The digestion
and experiencing of prints by analysis is a vital prerequisite for intuitive seeing.
The camera not only brings new images for the imagination to digest, but it can
catch an unforeseen circumstance while the mind is still grasping for it. The
process happens too quickly for even the mechanism of “recognition” to operate
fully. It is difficult to say exactly what happens; but if the photographer's intuition
is at work, the moment of significance can be sensed and the exposure can be
made.

26
 According to this rationale, the camera sees to be welded to the creative artist at
three points: (l) when recognition without criticism or analysis triggers exposure,
(2) when the print or group of prints is the photographer's experience, and (3)
when the exploratory role of the camera slips a man by his own emotional blind
spots.
A photographer needs to know the feel of his medium, because it has a bearing
on his emotional response and use of the medium. In photography, the feel of a
medium includes all of the materials, theories, and practices. The photographer
needs to have a feeling of what is going on in the emulsion. Somehow an
intellectual comprehension has to be converted into an emotional, and kinesthetic
or physical understanding of photography.
Minor White's Approach To Craftsmanship
White's approach to photography is based upon the philosophy that the
photographer is both a craftsman and a creative artist. Creative vision determines
what the photographer will photograph; craftsmanship provides him with the
necessary technical control over his medium.
White turned to the Ansel Adams Zone System because it provides a practical
sensitometric control—one that allows the photographer to predict, and create,
anything from the most literal rendition to the most non-literal deviation that he
may desire. The Zone System brings the photographer to a new and deeper grasp
of the materials and processes of photography and links them to a practical
working phi1osophy.
Inadequate Craftsmanship And Rationalization
If craftsmanship is inadequate to the visual situation, or if a mistake has been
made and the print does not conform to the expectations of the photographer, the
mind often begins to rationalize. If the rationalizations are successful, one
conditions oneself to accept the unfaithful print. In a very short time the original
vision will fade and be replaced by the print. Until the photographer becomes
conscious of his inner rationalizations and has the strength to overcome them he
will never know what is happening.
There are two ways to approach this problem of “rationalization.” One solution
is to treat the negative as a known step towards a print that manifests the original
version, and to accept nothing less than that. Ansel Adams called this “Planned
Photography.”
27
The second approach to a conscious craftsmanship is through planned
experimentation. In this case the negative is tested to see if it has a life of its own.
If it does, it is printed in many ways to find the print that works in its own right.
This approach requires a different form of discipline—the photographer must be
receptive to the life of the negative and he must be able to select the print that for
one reason or another communicates.
The Convincing Print
The convincing print looks the way it was meant to be. It is not a poor print that
someone rationalized himself into accepting as “good enough.” Whether or not a
print appears “convincing,” depends upon the audience. What a photographer will
accept because of rationalization has little to do with how others will see the
photograph. Then members of the audience have to be convinced that the
photograph is not a mistake.
The first way to attain a convincing photograph is through obvious faithfulness
to the appearance of the original subject. If the spectator gets the feeling in looking
at a photograph, that if he were beside the photographer at the time the exposure
was made he would have seen exactly the same thing, he will get the feeling that
the photograph is a faithful report of factual information.
The second way to attain a convincing print is aesthetic and graphic. A print that
is an obvious distortion of the original subject will not register as a mistake if it
satisfies some familiar aesthetic and compositional standards of painting or the
graphic arts. Such a photographic print does not necessarily resemble a drawing,
but it does conform to the painters' standards of compositional dynamics. The
“convincing” print must always bear telltale signs of its camera origin, because
persons with a deep understanding of photographic images possess a set of
standards based on a ‘rendering of reality.
The Replica Print
The photographer, who works in a highly conscious state of critical
craftsmanship, should have little trouble making identical prints. The secret is
discipline. The secret of replica prints is to standardize a procedure and stick to it.
The photographer must recall exactly how the final print was made. If a small
quantity of fresh developer is used for each print, and if development is by time
and temperature, it is only necessary to recall the pattern of local exposure control
(burning—in and dodging) to produce the replica print.

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White said exactly what procedure the photographer must follow: He has to learn
rhythmic burning and dodging, to put a voltage regulator in the line to the enlarger,
and to be consciously aware of what he is doing. Developer should be used in
fresh amounts (approx. 300 cc. Per one 8×10 print or equivalent) or in enormous
amounts for only a few prints. The solution should be kept moving all the time.
The first print developed always has more contrast and richness than the
succeeding ones. So when using a gallon or more to process up to 6 prints, the
“edge” of the developer should be removed with a test print, to be discarded
immediately. Thereafter the contrast in the succeeding prints will remain nearly
identical for a half dozen or so.
Straight Photography
It is difficult to say what the correct definition of pure photography is. What
Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and others defined as pure photography may be
correct, or it may just be the way their needs at that time dictated. Some pho-
tographers have always kept within the characteristics that are peculiar to
photography, but most of the photographers who practiced some form of pure
photography before Peter Henry Emerson's book Naturalistic Photography was
published, did so unconsciously.
Since Emerson's time, photographers have been more conscious about what
constitutes pure photography. Emerson battled against the accepted art
photographers of the time who tried to imitate what painting was doing. He
believed that photography has a unique way of looking at the world and an esthetic
that is worth exploring in its own right. However, the esthetics of naturalistic
photography that Emerson propounded is no longer sufficient. The photography,
that we know today, has added characteristics of lenses, shutters, and films that
were unknown in the 1880's.
The Characteristics Of Pure Photography
Continuous tone is basic to “straight” or “pure” photography; it was known in
Emerson's day, and it is still an important characteristic of photography.
Differential focus (meaning pictures that are only critically sharp at the point of
focus), and over-all sharpness, which is obtainable by the stopped-down
diaphragm, are also still in effect. In the 1930's, this point of over-all sharpness
was made a main issue by a group of West Coast photographers who called
themselves F 64. This F 64 group included, among others, Edward Weston and
Ansel Adams.
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 These five characteristics: precise image, continuous tone, over-all sharpness,
differential focus, and limitless replicas lie at the heart of any definition of straight
photography. Straight photography also implies; wide angle to telephoto
perspective, and blurred or stopped motion.
In modern times, the development of high speed films has brought the degree of
movement blur under the photographer's control. Likewise, the Bauhaus group in
the 1920's experimented with the multiple exposure technique and learned to use it
purposefully rather than as a mistake. Frozen motion, blur, and multiple exposure
are now a matter of the photographer's choice and have thus become tangible
characteristics of photography.
Fast lenses and films have made the transitory gesture or glance a characteristic
of pure photography. Gesture or glance, however, are not tangible characteristics
and so White fills out the definition of pure photography with a listing of
intangible characteristics.
The first pair of intangible characteristics is the sense of presence and its close
associate, the sense of authenticity. Both of these depend upon an image of great
clarity that renders visible everything that is in sight. The sense of presence can be
recognized when the illusion of reality is so strong that it seems to be your eyes
gazing at the subject unhindered by the glass eye of the camera and unmindful of
the eye of the photographer. You are there. This is the way that the viewer is
transported by the photograph to a different place and a different time. It is
impossible to say where presence merges into the sense of authenticity. We accept
the photograph as a document, because we feel that we are there and what we see
must be true.
The most intangible of all the characteristics of unique photography is Innocence
of Eye. It is difficult to identify in a photograph. It is most effective when it is the
most unobtrusive. Nevertheless, Innocence of Eye has a quality of its own. It
means to see as a child sees—with freshness and a deep sense of wonder.
Photography Compared To Painting
The act of selection may be considered as the photographer's equivalent of the
painter's act of composition. Photographers select their subject matter, and if they
are artists, they invariably recognize the significant form in the subject matter they
select. Therefore “selection” is characteristic of photography when it is used as an
art medium.
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 The photographer, using a kind of instantaneous analysis, selects the significant
from a stream of random events. The painter composes by synthesizing
significance out of pigments. Selecting is an act of choice. To some degree, it
reveals the personality traits of the photographer. It may be long and deliberate,
during which all of the photographer's background is drawn into the experience
and summed up at the instant of exposure; or it may happen so quickly that
everything that the photographer is becomes caught up in a moment of recognized
significance. The painter alters reality; the photographer alters nothing. Selection
is confined to the world as the photographer finds it. He waits and recognizes
significance.
The creative photographer must have a comprehension of the medium as a
whole, to match his “feeling” for the world. “Camera vision,” or the ability to look
at a scene and see a photograph in the mind's eye, is rare among photographers.
Some photographers—particularly those with training in painting—try to imitate
the painter; others only catch something interesting with the camera occasionally.
Photography must be distinguished from other art forms if we would be faithful
to the identity of the medium. It differs from other mediums visually—in the
subtle gradation of tonal separation; intellectually—in its high concentration of
commonly accepted symbols; and emotionally—because it makes us feel the
strong presence of reality. If art is considered to be a medium which is capable of
communicating feelings or experiences, there is no creative difference between
photography and art.
There are two types of individuals in the creative arts—the “finders” and the
“alterers.” White described them in this manner: The “finders” are delighted with
the world as it is. The finders search until the world opens up for them. “Alterers”
have the urge to alter rather than to find; so they accelerate all the accidents the
medium is heir to until they get so far from the camera that it would have been
easier to have painted. In photography, alteration abuses the medium. A medium
should not be forced to do something it cannot do.
The camera is capable of producing the most convincing illusion of reality; the
painter turns the visible world into one of his own. Photography can capture and
hold the significance of reality; the painter shapes it. Both directions are vital. If
photography is used to imitate painting, we overlook its own uniqueness.

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 Previsualization
The term “previsualization” stands for a developed ability to look at a scene and
at the same time hold in the mind‘ s eye the image of the print which is still to be
made. It is a discipline by which all the tangible characteristics built into the
medium of photography are brought into the circle of unique photography.
Developed to the point of a discipline, previsualization takes the accidental out of
the seeing and pictures of an individual.
If a person can imagine or predict what a multiple exposure can do on a single
sheet of film, he has every right to call the photograph his own. If he uses multiple
exposures as another way of putting the accidental on film, without
previsualization, he is merely postponing the moment of selection until he can
look over the prints.
Seeing And Previsualization
The ability to previsualize comes from practice, and it can only be learned by
direct experience with the medium. It is a wedding of technique to purpose. It
involves “seeing” as compared to “not seeing” but it also involves “seeing” as a
camera. “Seeing” stands for a heightened awareness of things. While in the act of
“seeing,” we do not impose our thoughts on the subject. It is a state of rapport with
the object, or a kind of two way interchange of some degree. Seeing as a camera
refers to full knowledge of the medium. Each act of previsualization begins with
“seeing” the subject, and is followed by a grasp of the subject as if “seen by the
camera.”
The Creative Application Of Previsualization
It is possible to look at a scene and imagine all the possible renderings that are
possible with that specific subject. This is ordinarily done after meter readings
have been made and all the potential combinations of exposure and development
have been studied. With all the data at hand one may previsualize in the direction
of realism or towards stylization or into ‘abstraction’ according to one's creative
purposes.
The photographer can previsualize, in succession, all the potential renderings of
the subject and select the one rendering that will best fulfill his own purposes with
the subject at hand. From many subjects, more than one convincing rendering will
be possible. Sometimes, one of the hidden renderings will fit the photographer's
purpose better than all the rest.

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After the photographer has gone through the mechanics of imagining a normal
print, he should previsualize, in succession, all the potential renderings that a scene
may be hiding within itself.
Regardless of whether the photographer's purpose is to capture reality or record
some inner state, previsualization leads to finding which one rendering will
materialize his intentions. By previsualizing every potential in the scene, the
photographer can choose the one which clearly states his interpretative purpose.
With practice, previsualization of this precise rendering will become intuitive.
The Zone System And Previsualization
No matter how brilliant a photographer's picture sense may be, it is not possible
to make good photographs unless he knows the properties of the materials he uses.
The Zone System, devised by Ansel Adams in 1940, allows the photographer to
predict the final result exactly. The System adds the factor of previsualization to
sensitometry.
Previsualization has a special meaning in the craftsmanship of the Zone System.
In the moment of previsualization, craftsmanship is completely at the service of
the expressive-interpretive purpose of the photographer. The System puts the
photographer in full command of his medium. The Zone System, while it takes
into consideration all features of the medium, is mainly concerned with the tonal
values and their control. The system enables the photographer to exercise control
over the exposure and development of both negative and print, in order to produce
a print whose values help to make the intended statement. The Zone System,
however, offers far more than contrast control of any given negative. It develops
the photographer's ability to determine and produce the rendering that he prefers
for any subject.
For example, he may decide on a vigorous print because the subject has strength;
or a soft, quiet print because a quality of serenity seems more important. Most
important, the Zone System allows the choice to be made on location, before the
exposure is made. The Zone System can help the photographer correlate six
factors that are present every time an exposure is made; subject, light, camera,
light-sensitive materials, the purposes of the photographer, and his psycho-
physiological responses to the subject. The System fits in well with the creative
application of previsualization because it develops one's ability to know what the
medium can do in every circumstance, and then to decide on the kind of print that
will serve one's purpose.
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 Tonality Identification And Zone Assignment
The identification of tonalities and their assignment to zones are affected by
physiological and psychological factors. If we recognize some dark value as coal,
then we will treat these values as “black” even though they are dark grays.
Likewise, we associate the tonal values of snow as “white” even though they are
light grays. Middle gray surrounded by black appears lighter than middle gray
surrounded by white.
Tonal identification is also affected by the psychological connotation of the
subject. Coal, hearses, and thousands of other associations, all help us form our
idea of what black is. Despite the fact that our mental gray scale fluctuates
unpredictably, it is possible to look at a subject and consciously identify the tones
according to memorized shades of gray. We can literally see Caucasian skin in
sunlight as Zone VI and Zone III shadows. One automatically starts to imagine a
photograph while looking at the scene.
Previsualization And Film Development
The photographer can look at his exposure meter and predict the tonal effect of
changing development time from a standard. The effects of exposure on density,
and the effect of variable film development time on contrast, can be previsualized
and controlled with the Zone System.
In the Zone System, the negative is developed in accordance with the brightness
range of each scene. Each scene and each negative is considered to be a separate
problem. This is in contrast to general photographic practice where the variety of
brightness ranges are controlled by the use of contrast grades in printing paper,
special paper developers, and the use of several kinds of film. The Zone System
controls brightness ranges by a pre-planned series of negative developing times.
Previsualization And The Print
The photographer who knows the zone System can previsualize and plan the
print that he wants before the exposure is made. The previsualized image,
imagined in zones, is “stored” in the negative. Exposure of the print is adjusted,
more or less within the segment of a print zone, to the precise value needed to
fulfill the remembered previsualization of the image.

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 Printing is distinctly treated as an interpretive act or process. It involves a return
to the heightened awareness that characterizes an individual in the state of
previsualization. If printing is to be a way of recalling the mental image of the
subject and its photograph, a state of “seeing” must be created within the
photographer at this time.
After considering the similarity between the two conditions, White applied the
term “post-visualization” to the printing stage. Post visualization may be thought
of as a necessary condition, in which the events “deep frozen” in the negative, are
interpreted and materialized. Unfortunately, the time lapse between the time of
“seeing” and the printing period can be destructive. The photographer may have to
use some device, such as the original negative, as a trigger to bring back the
associations and taste of the original scene.
The Zone System As A Discipline
White defined the ideal negative as one that can be printed without dodging,
burning-in, tonal alterations, or cropping that were not foreseen at the time of
exposure. The moment of exposure sums up everything that we hope to make
visible in the print. To hold to such thinking amounts to a strict and severe
discipline, but this discipline is the ultimate value of the Zone System. We are
forced to be honest with ourselves. We can no longer accept the short-scale print
made on a #1 contrast grade paper or an over—scaled print made on a #3 paper, as
a deliberate creative product, simply because they are handsome or emotionally
satisfying. However, the logical procedures and discipline of the System provide
technical control when the photographer works intuitively and directly out of a
feeling state.
The Zone System And Creative Intent
The ultimate achievement of zone system practice is to enable the photographer
to fulfill his creative intentions. Consequently, the print must do more than provide
an accurate tonal rendering of the subject. The “full-scale print” or “normal print,”
where all 10 print values from Zone O to Zone IX (textureless black to textureless
white) are visible, should only be thought of as a point of departure. If the
“normal” print is thought of as the ultimate in print quality, technique becomes a
way of closing the doors to creativity.

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 A print should be studied as if it were a new visual fact, totally independent of
the photographer. The photographer should learn to disassociate himself from his
own photographs, and to look at them as though they were made by someone else.
A photograph should be faithful to the intentions and purposes of the
photographer. If not, how can the photographer honestly say that this accidental
interpretation is a part of himself? If we are going to be honest about it, the
photograph that fails to carry out the previsualized conception should be discarded
as a failure; unless the photographer wishes to make over his inner-self to
correspond with the statement of the photograph.
The Subconsious Mind In Photography
The photographic image can be a record of an inner state that the photographer
neither remembers seeing nor experiencing at the moment of exposure. The
photographer can put things into the subconscious and get a visual answer in due
time—if he works in a seeing state with a blank and responsive mind, and if
something is fed into the subconscious mind through meditation. Sometimes the
relationship between what has been fed into the subconscious can be seen
instantly, sometimes only after the print is seen in meditation.
The Unconscious Creative Cycle
The photographer's task is to make emotional feelings come out visually. The
process by which this occurs can be called: The Unconscious Creative Cycle.
First, an Idea Feeling becomes isolated and drops into the subconscious from the
surface mind. The photographer's mind is thus sensitized, and found objects or
objects in the studio develop into an idea when put together. Next, there is a visual
echo of the Idea Feeling. The photographer recognizes that something exciting has
happened, but he may or may not know the cause.
The photograph may be the result of contemplation and previsualization; or it
can be created very quickly, as a result of the photographer's recognition that
something of importance has taken place. Finally, the new photograph is
contemplated and the Idea Feeling is identified. The Conscious and Unconscious
are united by Feeling, which leads to their fusion in a spontaneous public image or
photograph.
To understand how the unconscious creative works, we must understand what
the “blank mind” is and how contemplation is used to limber up the unconscious
mind.

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Contemplation can be directed inward or outward as the individual wishes, and so
there are two distinct types of contemplation—the subjective and the objective.
The Subjective Contemplation of an object or photograph is undertaken for the
express purpose of exposing some aspect of the self of the viewer. The direction of
Subjective Contemplation is inward, because of the viewer's association with the
contemplative act.
The aim of Objective Contemplation is the opposite of self-discovery. It is
undertaken when the purposes of Subjective Contemplation have run their course,
and its purpose is to establish rapport with the physical world. Objective
Contemplation seeks to discover the meanings of things in the outside world. It
reports facts, it allows us to look at the photograph as a unique object in the world,
and it ultimately allows the spectator to establish contact with the photographer.
The dominant feature of the “blank” mind is the absence of preconceived ideas.
Preconceived ideas serve to obscure the receptivity of the conscious mind. When
the state of mind is “blank,” intuition and perception function at their best because
the subconscious will overcome the surface mind when the moment of recognition
strikes. In this state, one can turn the seeing inward or outward at will.
The Photographer's Response To The Subject
The creative photographer should not impose himself on the subject, he should
submit himself to objects. The camera should be thought of as a means to
experience the world directly rather than as a tool to impose the photographer's
preconceptions upon it.
The photographer must not attempt to project himself into what he sees, because
it requires a receptive state of mind to catch a manifestation of the subject idea.
The photographer's state of mind should be similar, if not identical, to the state
achieved during the serious contemplation of a photograph. This approach to the
medium requires faith that objects may be fascinating in themselves or have a
magic all their own.
If the photographer works with a receptive state of mind, the photograph may
reveal the essence of the object and disclose something about its inner truth. White
has described how the subject idea is given form: With great luck the first echo
caught is a brilliant manifestation of the Idea. Usually there is a gradual
emergence, the Idea is slowly sketched out, one photograph at a time, each of
which fills a part of the rhythm or distorts the whole. As the photographer
contemplates these “sketches” he begins to see the shape of the Idea.
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Then, one photograph somehow, is understood to fit, if not exactly, then
sufficiently to release the man from his minor obsession. Once a “good gestalt” is
achieved he is free to go on to other Ideas.
Ideas come from outside of us as well as inside; and impressions, events and
circumstances reach the subconscious from the surface mind at all times. In
addition, however, there seems to be an independent source of ideas originating
within the depth mind.
Literal And Non-Literal Interpretation
There are basically two kinds of photographs—the literal and the non-literal. In a
literal photograph, there is significance within the picture. The subject is important
in its own right. In a non-literal photograph, significance is invented. Emotional
overtones are important, not the object in itself.
About 98 percent of photography today, is literal documentary photography. It is
aimed at realism and at making the viewer see what the photographer saw. In the
non-literal photograph, the original subject is unidentifiable, and what you
understand from it depends on what you draw out of yourself. The “realistically”
oriented will see only the subject; the imaginative or intellectual person will see
the implications of the photograph's design, signs, symbols, and associations, etc.
Literal Interpretation
Literal interpretation is the attempt to make a print where the substance and
detail of the subject matter are faithful to the feeling of the original. The most
difficult problem of literal interpretation is to reproduce the facts yet make the
spectator realize that there is feeling and meaning beneath them. Since a tone for
tone reproduction of the original scene often affects the spectator as false, some
tonal alterations normally have to be made to produce a convincing photograph.
Tonal alterations must be made because of the translation from a three
dimensional world to the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional
surface. The photographer is forced to make some kind of a choice as to how he
will alter reality, and consequently he must make some kind of an interpretation.
Non-Literal Interpretation
The non-literal interpretation deviates from what the spectator would consider a
faithful rendering of a given subject. If the subject is unfamiliar to the spectator,
considerable alteration can occur before he notices it. Alteration is only one way
that the non-literal photograph can be created.
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In some cases a mild degree of non-literalism happens when a normal contrast
negative is printed on a high or low contrast grade of paper. In other cases, non-
literalism happens through the derivations possible in experimental photography.
Non-literal interpretation is a legitimate process, although the non-literal
interpretation of a particular negative may be open to question. The Zone System
and previsualization offer a solution to the problem because they allow the
photographer to plan the non-literal interpretation at the time of exposure. The
photographer can investigate all the kinds of photographs a given scene might
yield while looking at it.
If the photographer plans, visualizes, and previsualizes the non-literal
interpretation, the element of the accidental is removed and the photograph will
tend to be more convincing. If the spectator gets the notion that the photograph is
the result of an accident, which the photographer claims as his own, he may well
accuse the photographer of phoniness. The idea behind the non-literal photograph
is not to convince the spectator of the photograph's faithfulness to the original
scene, but to convince him of the presence and sincerity of the photographer. No
matter how spontaneous or accidental the subject of the picture may be, the
photographer must convince the spectator that it was no accident.
Negatives can have a life of their own. Many photographers discover non-literal
interpretations in the negative, which were not previsualized, and rationalize until
the non-literal interpretation is justified. A photographer can become so intrigued
with a negative that his original intentions are lost. Previsualization lies at the
heart of convincing photography; because it permits the photographer to look at a
scene, transpose it with the imaginary eye into all the various kinds of literal and
non-literal pictures that the medium will allow, and to select the one that best suits
his purpose. The previsualized photograph tends to convince the spectator that it
was no accident the photographer was there and no accident that he saw what he
did.
Chance Or “Happenstance”
If a photographer takes what chance and accident give him, he has a right to
claim it as his. Chance put the subject there to be photographed, but the
photographer must be present to see it. He must be present at the precise moment
when the meaning of some form, pattern, sign, or symbol takes on significance.
Because he alone saw the ulterior meaning of some chance occurrence, the
photographer has a right to claim his found photograph.
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 Chance continually carves new forms, drops an object into the right place, and
reveals new forms. Some photographers use the accidental with purpose. They
know what the chance symbol means and use it. Others garble a message, that has
already been stated clearly by chance, by attempting to alter or clarify it. The
photographer can use chance or “happenstance” to his advantage if he understands
something about it. He must have enough intuition and imagination to recognize
those forms, patterns, signs, symbols, and subject relationships which will have
meaning for his fellow man.
If the photographer's picture is suddenly visible in an area where he was
previously unable to find it, nothing has changed except perhaps the perception of
the photographer or the lighting. However, in the process of discovering the
significant in chance forms, the photographer will see many subjects that have no
possible significance to human beings. Other subjects will take on significance as
age creeps on and chance takes over, because the farther an object gets from the
hand of the creator, the more the imprint of their personality fades. When this
happens, the photographer will be able to find things that were never intended by
the originator.
Expressive And Creative Photography
The term “creative” stands for that kind of photograph which communicates
what one has to say to another person. The term “expressive” stands for the use of
the camera to discover one's inner-self.
Since the “creative” photograph is expected to evoke a predetermined mood in
the spectator, the photographer should know what he wishes to communicate so
well that he can find the right means and the proper photograph to make another
person understand what he is trying to say. The “creative” photographer looks at
everything to see if it might possibly be the photograph that he is searching for.
The whole creative process of understanding a subject is colored by also trying to
see if its essence is similar enough to some abstract idea to be a possible subject
for that idea. This kind of creative photography requires a sensitivity to the unique
implications of every subject, then selecting the one which is photogenic at the
moment.

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 There is a second approach to creative photography in which the photographer
attempts to understand all the possible implications of a subject, and then sees if
one implication might be similar enough to the idea in his mind to illustrate it and
make it visible. The first is accomplished by photographing the subject itself in
such a way that its character is revealed; the second, by choosing a subject to
photograph which will illustrate an idea existing only in the mind of the
photographer. The first method requires an understanding of the subject; the
second, recognition of what will convey a meaning.
Both of these approaches to creative photography rely upon the capacity of the
medium to convey feelings about one subject through another subject. When
photography is used in this manner, the physical nature of the subject is imma-
terial. The photographer must be open-minded to all subjects, and look for a
subject capable of communicating his concept to an audience.
People can be photographed in a similar manner, by creating emotions in the
subject which will bring out what you wish to convey. A mood must be created in
the subject within which facial expressions can be brought into a series of changes
for the purpose of selection. If the creative effort is mutual, a creative state will
exist during which new things will arise spontaneously and selection becomes a
matter of photographing fast enough.
Creativeness in photography is found exclusively in the perceptive-phase, or the
period prior to exposure, rather than the execution-phase of photography.
Fortunately, the photographer is conditioned by his medium to automatically
recognize the moment when a subject is fully revealed.
In the perceptive-phase there are three ways of practicing creativeness: The first
way is to understand the meaning of the subject—although we should understand
that what we know about the subject colors our understanding of it; the second
way is to understand all the implications of the subject and use one to illustrate an
abstract idea; and the third way is to establish a mutual understanding between the
photographer and the sitter, which can develop into a state of mutual creativeness.
The expressive photograph has significance for the photographer, but it may be
meaningless or mean something entirely different to others. The photographer may
see something and record it without once considering the feelings of those who
may see it. It is the kind of photograph that allows the photographer to explore his
own personality, and it is made when you want to photograph in order to contem-
plate and analyze what a photograph really means to you.
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Expressive photography allows the photographer to learn what he has to say. In
creative Photography, the problem is to make photographs which will have
significance and evoke a predetermined emotion in the spectator. Expressive
photography shows you what you have to say and there is a constant alternation
between this and creative photography. It is a dual process—studying one's own
inner growth, and then creating.
Things For What They Are-Things For What Else They Are
White began his photographic career in 1937 at Point Lobos, California. He tried
to reach the essence of shell and peppers—to record reality—but he found that
each photograph was a mirror of himself. In 1950, he started to photograph things
for what else they are. He learned that while the camera records reality, it
transforms it better. At first, White photographed chance moments as they were
given to him. Later, he learned to make chance moments occur by looking at the
subject until he saw what else it was. White believed that photographed surfaces
must reveal the essences of objects, places, persons, and situations; but his
photographs mirrored his own inner-self. He discovered that in photographing
things for what else they are the photographer can go either towards himself or
away from himself.
When you try to photograph something for what it is, you have to go out of
yourself, out of your way, to understand the essence of the object. The subject
concept goes beyond that which can be seen; it includes factual information about
the object, the essence of the object, and the inner facts as well. If an object is
3-dimensional but it is photographed as a flat object, you are making it do
something, and you are photographing things as they become.
In photographing things for what else they are, transpositions may be made in
form, time, texture, density, meaning, resemblance, suggestion, etc. A rock may
become a landscape and frost on the window pane may become a sea wave. This
kind of photography requires observation on the part of the photographer. He must
observe the changes made by lighting, shadows, objects in space, and the changes
in perspective that occur when the focal length of the lens is altered. The concept
is a subjective one. The photographer must ask himself: What does the subject
remind me of? How do I feel about it? What is it equivalent to? Through the
juxtaposition of one object with another, the connotations of each can be made to
change. The objects are not visually changed by photographing them together but
their implications are, and the conflict of connotations becomes the impact of the
photograph.
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The relationship of objects creates a kind of “third effect,” and the concept of
Things For What Else They Are is extended to still another dimension.
Photography Of An Inner State Of Mind
To understand this intangible concept, it is helpful to think of photography as a
mirage, the camera as if it were a metamorphosizing machine, and the photograph
as if it were a metaphor. As the degree of metamorphosis increases, the original
subject has less and less bearing on the ultimate meaning of the photograph, and
the mental image within the spectator becomes increasingly the only possible
source of his experience. When the link to the original subject is broken or
stretched thin, the spectator is left to his own associations. White believed that this
intangible realm of controlling the spectator's mental image will be the artist
photographer's future field of communication. We make mental adjustments and
permit shades of gray to stand for color, two dimensions to stand for three, and
picture size to stand for life size; but in spite of our acceptance of photographic
authenticity, a photograph of a tree is not the tree itself. The photograph is not
reality.
When the photographer is freed from thinking only in terms of surfaces, texture,
form, and substance, he can use these elements to pursue images of poetic beauty
and truth. Symbolism, metaphors, and Equivalents are the pictorial elements
which the photographer can use to depict the inner world—to render the invisible
visible.
Channeling The Spectator's Associations
The photographer loses control of communication when the spectator is left to
his own associations. The only dependable way of working in the private world of
other people's associations and mental images is to channel the spectator's
association with a title. A photograph may need a title because it does not function
as a source of information. It may be meaningful only if the subject is treated as a
kind of peg to hang symbols upon. At the opposite extreme, the identification of
subject matter can be so obvious that a title is necessary to suggest how the picture
might be experienced more fully.
The Record Of An Inner State
The objectivity of the camera enables the photographer to turn it inward and use
it as a means of self-discovery. However, an image can be a record of an inner
state that the photographer neither remembers seeing nor experiencing at the
moment of exposure.
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A meaning or event, occurring in a photograph, may be entirely independent of the
photographer. When an “urgency” is present it seems to find many mirrors of
itself in the visible world.
The photograph which is a record of some inner state can function as a means of
self-discovery because it can help the photographer to understand what his inner
state was at the time the photograph was made. If this kind of photograph is
exhibited, the camera can hold up a piece of the photographer's psyche for public
display.
Mirror Images
The “mirror image” is in the realm of Things For What Else They Are or what
things are in the process of becoming. Mirroring starts with the self-portrait. If the
photographer changes expression, he brings some inner change to the surface of
his face for the camera to see. In effect, his facial expression acts as a mirror of
some aspect of his inner-self. Mirroring, however, goes much farther than that.
The similarities of any kind that one feels to be parallel to one's self may act as a
mirror, at least to the photographer.
Probe Images
The Probe Image is one that causes a spectator to look into himself.
Unfortunately, because audiences find it discomforting to take a searching look at
themselves, there is a tendency to dismiss these penetrating photographs as
psychologically distressing. The Probe Image seems to have an unpredictable life
of its own—some find it discomforting, some find it to be therapy, and others find
it exciting. There is no sure way to plan a photograph so that it will act as a probe.
Dream Images
The Dream Image appears to be a visual message from the psyche to the
photographer. The image should be read by the photographer, but it is a personal
message and not really meant for public viewing. One can learn to interpret Dream
Images just about as easily as one learns to read a new language, however not all
photographs should be read.
Message Images
The Message Image is similar to the Dream Image in appearance, in the
necessity to know enough to recognize when a message is present, and in the
knowledge that is required to read it. Both Dream and Message Images appear as
hard reality. The difference between them is quite simple.
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The Message Image comes from a source independent of the photographer's
psyche. The content is new material that the person could never have thought of.
The content is objective not imagined. This is the remarkable part of the Message
Image.
The Mirror Images of “things for what else they are” and all the variations
extend beyond sight and insight. Content and transcendence are important, not the
manner nor the means which the photographer chooses to employ. Realism may be
stretched to the point of abstraction; but some tie with the world of appearances
must be maintained, or else the camera's strongest point—its authenticity—will be
irretrievably lost.
The Equivalent
The Equivalent established the core of the kind of art photography will be. In
this approach, the subject is treated without regard for either its individuality or its
essence, or the reaction it causes in the photographer; but it is treated as the
medium of expression. The photograph functions as a metaphor, and the camera
sees through the world of surfaces to the implications of the subject. Stieglitz used
clouds and people for Equivalents, but it makes no difference what subject matter
is used. Equivalence is not a style. It is a function between the spectator, the
photograph, and extending in time perhaps to the person who made it. It can be a
mirror of one's inner-self. If a feeling of loneliness is uppermost in the
consciousness of the photographer, an old building, a park, a pond of lilies, or even
a lamp post will provide the subject matter for the camera. The same subject
matter can communicate other feelings as well.
The Process Of Equivalence
It was Stieglitz' response to his subject matter which made the equivalence. This
special response may be described as an image taken into a person and retained
because it is wanted. Once this image is within a person, it is turned into his own
private image. This private image will cross a person's mind from time to time,
even though it may not be understood. Because of some human emotion arising
out of fear, love, annoyance, anger, joy, or human trust, etc., there is a desire or a
compulsion to remember the image. It is held close within the person, and it
therefore changes him in some way.

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 An Equivalent evokes a feeling similar to one which already exists in some other
event or photograph. It works by the power of suggestion; and the mind of the
spectator must get past the intellectual symbolism of the photograph, because the
photograph should evoke a feeling, not an intellectual idea.
A photograph may act as an Equivalent to another photograph in this manner:
Photograph A is expressive. It has meaning only for the photographer in that it is a
stage of growth. Photograph A1 gives feeling to you but also to someone else, and
is derived from self-exploration. If Photograph B has the feeling of A1, it is said to
be equivalent to A.
When a photograph functions for a given person as an Equivalent, it is acting as
a symbol or plays the role of a metaphor for something that is beyond the subject
photographed. It is both a record of something in front of the camera and
simultaneously a spontaneous symbol. (A spontaneous symbol is one which
develops automatically to fill the need of the moment.) Equivalence is a two-way
reaction between the photograph + the person looking at the photograph and the
person's mental image. It is only in the mental image held that there is any
possibility of a metaphorical function occurring.
A photograph functions as an Equivalent in the viewer's psyche by the
mechanisms of “projection” and “empathy.” If the viewer is not subject-
identification bound, he will respond to the expressive qualities of shapes and
forms on a subconscious level. The effect that seems to be associated with
Equivalence may be described in this manner: When both the subject matter and
manner of rendering are transcended, that which seems to be matter becomes what
seems to be spirit.
Equivalence revolves around the “remembered image.” What we remember is
peculiarly our own, because various distortions occur and change this recall image
after the original stimulation has gone. These alterations from the original come
from the individual himself, and so the response to an Equivalent must remain a
private, untranslatable experience which lies entirely within the individual.
Communication By The Equivalent
Any photograph can function as an Equivalent to someone, sometime,
someplace. If the individual viewer realizes that for him what he sees in a picture
corresponds to something within himself, If the photograph mirrors something in
himself, then his experience is some degree of Equivalence.

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 An Equivalent, tells the viewer in effect, “I had a feeling about something and
here is a metaphor of my feeling.” What is significant here is that what the
photographer had a feeling about was not for the subject he photographed, but for
something else. The forms of a cloud may correspond to the photographer's
feelings about a certain person and remind him of the person. If the spectator
catches in the photograph the same feeling that the photographer experienced, and
if the spectator's feelings are similar to the photographer's, then the photographer
has aroused a known feeling in him.
The power of the Equivalent, as a vehicle of creative expression, lies in the fact
that it can convey and evoke feelings about things, situations, and events which for
one reason or another cannot be photographed. The Equivalent enables the
photographer to use the forms and shapes of objects for their expressive-evocative
qualities. The Equivalent does not express the feeling that the photographer had
for the object that he photographed; it is the expression of a feeling that lies within
the man himself. The plastic material of the visual world is used for the
photographer's expressive purposes.
Objects or forms can be photographed to obtain an image with specific
suggestive powers. In this way, the viewer can be directed into a specific and
known feeling state within himself. Materials possessing an infinite variety of
forms, such as clouds, water, or ice, can suggest all sorts of emotions, tactile
encounters, and intellectual speculations in the spectator. These reactions are
formed and supported by the nature of the material but they maintain an
independent identity which allows the photographer to choose what he wishes to
express.
The Equivalent permits the photographer to emphasize the transforming power
of the medium over its recording power, by causing the subject to stand for
something else. It is equally strong; and it permits the photographer to express a
feeling or emotion, or to photograph a subject that is un-photogenic. At one level
the subject matter of the Equivalent is simply a record, but at another level it may
function to arouse certain planned sensations and emotions.
The Equivalent And Coreform
Coreform is a blend of the unique qualities of the object—subject and its inner
structure or essence plus the qualities of the photographer. Since the Equivalent
externalizes inner states, its scope includes coreform. When there is a rapport
between the photographer and an object, metamorphosis can occur to part of
himself.
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The photographer must turn to the Equivalent to externalize what is changed in
himself. The direct record would be a photograph of something or other, but not of
his change. A different image in another place and time must be found—which
somehow or other when photographed is equivalent to the coreform image.
Private And Public Equivalents
The Equivalent is private if it remains meaningful to the photographer alone. It
makes no difference whether it refers to his inner life, the outer world, or to some
other world. Publicness in pictures, not only means that the photograph is
physically available to other people, but that it can be perceived by a general
audience as well. The Public Equivalent is an Equivalent which has been
deliberately given form that an audience will understand.
The theory of Equivalence gives the photographer a way to use the camera in
relation to the mind, heart, and human spirit; but it is necessary to develop a
profound understanding of the medium to control the effect of the Equivalent on
the audience. With practice, it is possible to predict the equivalent effect of
photographs on other persons and to evoke known inner states in other people with
the known equivalence of photographs. A few photographers, notably Frederick
Sommer in Arizona and Paul Caponigro in Massachusetts, deliberately tried to
work from their known feeling states in order to make photographs which will
arouse similar feeling states in others. The predictable use of Equivalence,
however, can never be subjected to mass audiences unless those audiences become
visually sophisticated.
The Photographer's State Of Mind
To release the shutter in a “seeing” state, makes it possible for the photographer
to consciously sum up everything he is at the moment of exposure. Whether the
photographer was consciously present or absent at the moment of exposure, shows
up very subtly in the photograph. If the photographer is in resonance with the
subject at the time a photograph is made, his pictures will seem to radiate his
presence.
Heightened Awareness
It is necessary to make and sustain contact with the subject until a resonance is
established between you and the livingness of the object. The details of
craftsmanship should be carried out in a low level of intensity, but when all this is
done, the photographer should be intensely aware of the object and background.
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 The release of the shutter should occur while holding contact or resonance with
the subject. After the exposure, contact is held briefly with the object—then
released. If the photographer has employed all of his senses in a sustained contact
with the object, he should be able to view the photograph and observe what trans-
formations have occurred. The photograph may or may not differ from what the
photographer saw in a state of “heightened awareness.“ It may or may not be the
strongest way of rendering the subject. But, “heightened awareness” will enable
the photographer to be intensely aware of the original subject and to compare his
perception of it with the photograph.
Heightened Awareness does not lead to a loss of spontaneity. One of the aims of
Heightened Awareness is to induce the spontaneous by means of a deliberate, and
conscious act. Heightened Awareness teaches the photographer to be so sensitive
that he can discriminate between the essence of the object, and what is being
projected out of the self. (The photographer projects himself into everything he
sees. This is a natural process which the psychologists call “empathy,” and it
enables the photographer to identify himself with everything in order to know it
and feel it better.)
The Blank Mind
The state of mind of the photographer while creating should be blank—that is to
say, it should be receptive and free from pre-conceptions. The lack of a
preconceived idea of how the subject ought to look is essential, since an open
mind leads to comprehension and understanding of everything that is seen.
The state of the Blank Mind is not reached automatically; the photographer must
make an effort to reach such a condition. The creative work of the photographer
partly consists in putting himself into this state of mind.
White discovered that to photograph with a temporarily blank mind is a way of
tapping the unconscious. Moments of revelation or “intuitive recognition” always
seemed to emerge from a state of mind which was blank. Depth psychologists say
that this brief period of the Blank Mind is when the subconscious mind overrides
the surface mind. During that brief moment, when the subconscious mind takes
over, we can reach into the subconscious on the one hand and into the visual-
tactile universe on the other.

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 The Sequence As A Creative Form
When images are placed side by side, they affect our minds in various ways.
Images seem to change when other images are brought beside them because of the
phenomenon of “projection.” The Sequence enables the photographer to make a
visual statement with several images, which when seen together, make a statement
that cannot be made by the single photograph. Such visual connections can be
made when there is a shape relationship between two images. Images can also be
linked together by the use of verbal connections that apply to both images.
When photography probes the subconscious mind, it may require many
fragmentary statements to make a complete statement that we can comprehend.
Sequencing allows several photographs to be played against each other until the
fragmentary statement of two or more complete each other, or between them say
more than either can say alone.
The Sequence And Cinema
White compared the Sequence to a “cinema of stills.” The spectator fills in the
time between photographs from himself, from what he can read in the implications
of design, from suggestions arising out of the treatment of the Sequence, and from
any symbolism that might grow from within the work itself. Chronological time is
not important; the sequence may consist of photographs which were made many
years and many miles apart.
Subject Matter And The Sequence
Sequences originate from within the photographer. They are an outcome of
strong emotions and intense subjective seeing. They are not planned; they are
allowed to happen. However, the photographer may be able to tell that a Sequence
is brewing from the nature of the images, if he lives the message as it unfolds.
A coreform is at the heart of every Sequence, and it is necessary to find the
coreform embedded within a growing group of photographs before sequencing can
even start. The subject matter of the sequence is not what is visibly rendered. If,
for example, rocks were photographed, the subject of the Sequence is not rocks.
While symbols seem to appear, they are barely pointers to significance. The
meaning appears in the mood they raise in the beholder; and the flow of the
Sequence eddies in the river of his associations as he passes from picture to
picture. The rocks are only the objects upon which the significance is spread.

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 The Sequence Is Analogous To Literature
We can make an analogy between the Sequence and literature. Some
photographs are nouns or things, others are verbs or action, adjectives, adverbs, or
even punctuation. The individual photograph can be compared to words, small
groups of photographs are paragraphs or chapters, and the Sequence is like the
novel or epic poem. The difference lies in the fact that pictures can have many
meanings, and intuition is required to discover the right meaning in the context of
other images. Intuition is required to put images into context with each other.
Types Of Sequences
There are two principal kinds of layouts which may be used for the Sequence—
Chronological and Non-chronological. In a Chronological layout, the first picture
taken will be the first used. The opening picture should be strong design-wise, and
it partly sums up the story. The final photograph sums up and ends the story. There
is a chronological story form between the two pictures.
The Non-Chronological Sequence is not dependent upon a time sequence. What
is said depends entirely upon the arrangement of the photographs, and there is
more latitude in how these stories can be handled. The temptation to put a
Sequence into a chronological layout must be carefully considered. The
occurrence of the right places and things to photograph ordinarily occurs out of
chronological order.
Sequence Layout
The relative closeness and Openness of photographs is a tool by which layout
can be made. Generally, two photographs that can stand by themselves should not
be side by side. The closed photograph can stand by itself, but the open
photograph needs something on both sides to link it in to the Sequence. If the
Sequence closes open endedly, the person looking at it should have enough from
the images to be able to complete it in his own mind, to his own satisfaction. One
useful method of sequencing is to isolate the opening photograph and the terminal
photograph and then fill in between. In a way, the first and last photograph seem to
set a question and the fill-in photographs provide an answer to that question. The
fill-in photographs explain what the Sequence is all about.

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 The spontaneous method of sequencing photographs is to push the pictures
around, and then mull them over until they suggest the story by standing out. In
this method of sequencing, it is necessary to question the first impact and ask
ourselves: Is that really what is there? Another method is to arrange the
photographs that belong to a potential sequence into a left to right reading order. A
small group of photographs will constitute the essence of the Sequence, and on top
of this essential frame-work we add connective photographs and encourage
phrases to develop. As the structure of the Sequence unfolds, we may notice that
some pictures are missing. In that case, photographs may have to be made to fit
precisely in some gap within the Sequence.
Generally, a Sequence consists of phrases. Each phrase has its internal structure
and each phrase builds to the ultimate climax and overall meaning. The meaning
of each image is less than the meaning of the Sequence as a whole. Each
photograph contributes in relation to its place in the series, and each has a fitting
place for building up toward the climax.
The Sequence And An Audience
The creative or psychological structure of a Sequence may be experienced all at
once—even though the Sequence may not be completed for many months. Once
the significance of the subjective coreform is grasped, the Sequence can be com-
pleted and polished to make it understandable to an audience. In forming a
Sequence, the framework of the structure should be obvious to you, but invisible
to anyone else, unless the Sequence is studied to see how it has been structured.
Experiencing The Photograph
It is important to realize at the outset that a photograph may be a sketch rather
than a complete photograph. The “realized” photograph is a clearly stated idea-
feeling which can progress by stages out of the photographer's growing awareness
and absorption in a place. In the sketch photograph, the idea-feeling is not clearly
stated, and it may be necessary for the photographer to re-shoot the first set-up or
its equivalent until the sketches lead towards the final complete photograph.
The photograph can serve as an excitant to cause some degree of experience in
people. While the photographer cannot erase the implications of the subject from
the viewer's mind, he can use the visual relations that are present in the print to
serve as the main source of the spectator‘s feelings.

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 The photographer can purposely strengthen the linkage between the viewer and
the subject with representational photographs, or he can weaken it with
photographs in which the subject is hardly recognizable or not recognizable at all.
But, if the spectator of a photograph has lived an experience which is similar to the
idea-feeling of the photograph, the photograph will have the capacity to evoke that
idea-feeling in the store of the viewer's images.
Physical Procedure For Experiencing Photographs
It is important to make certain that no interruptions will occur that might disturb
our efforts to experience a photograph. It is by being still with ourselves, that we
can make ourselves receptive to the suggestions coming from the images that well
up into the conscious mind from the unconscious.
The photograph should be placed in a position where it is free from distracting
backgrounds, where the lighting is good, and where the spectator can sit
comfortably erect with his body and shoulders square to the picture. The spectator
should relax prior to the crucial moment when he first engages the image. When
changes occur in the image, the work period may begin. These changes may vary
with the individual. For some, the perception of space in depth within the image
suddenly increases. Others will experience changes in the brightness or size of the
image.
The active work of experiencing a photograph consists in scanning the image
until everything in the photograph has been seen and noted. The spectator should
become acquainted with each object, with every detail within the photograph, and
with the relationships between objects and the space they inhabit. When all of the
relationships within the photograph have been observed, the spectator should bring
his technical knowledge and philosophies about the medium to bear on the image.
The spectator analyzes composition with the surface mind; with intuition he
feels the relation of the composition to the picture content. The spectator can
establish empathy with the image by using his imagination to project himself into
the various objects within the photograph. At the end of the work period the state
of stillness is turned off in brief steps. A final impression of the image should be
taken before we look elsewhere. Then, the experience should be held on to in
silence. The various things which have been seen and noted should be reviewed as
related visuals.

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 Procedure For The Analysis Of Photographs
One should first feel the emotional significance of a photograph and then use
intellectual analysis to bear out or disprove these feelings. To look at a photograph
with a predisposed mind, may blind us as to what the photograph says. This
method of print analysis is based on the contemplation of visible relationships as
well as intellectual and emotional meanings. All of the visible occurrences in a
photograph can be analyzed for what they are. The various concepts, such as light
quality and space, have a bearing on the mood of a picture as well as a profound
effect on the meaning of the photograph. Although many concepts and elements
overlap and combine to establish the mood of a photograph, they can be isolated in
order to describe their functional effect on the picture. For example, if we can
disassociate in our minds the light occurring in the print, from the subject of the
print, the light itself can be felt to have an effect on the total mood.
Concepts are useful only to get at the significance of a photograph. The
important thing is to identify the idea-feeling of the photographer and to
understand what it is the photographer is saying. If the photograph is emotionally
a blank, deliberate analysis of the various concepts may help us to perceive the
significance of the photograph.
Reading a photograph may be based on what it reminds you of. It is a
verbalization of your experience of a photograph. The process of reading a
photograph converts a non-verbal experience into a verbal one. Non-verbal
communication does not involve the spoken word. It may be conscious or
unconscious. It may be made by gestures or through the meaning of objects
themselves. It may use signs and symbolism.
Readings of photo-journalistic work should generally be done as “non-verbal”
communication. Readings of pictorial photographs should generally be done in the
light of the subject, and how the photographer has used the subject matter. The
reason for reading a photograph is that it enables us to understand what is going on
in the photograph technique wise and communication wise.
Any photograph that communicates does so because a person is reading it. The
process of reading a photograph can be an intellectual effort, an intuitive one, or a
combination of both. To make a “reading,” verbalization is necessary. One has to
speak or write about one's experience of a photograph. In the process of translating
a visual experience into verbal expression, slips are bound to occur and so
verbalizing should be done only after the photograph is experienced and it should
be done only if there is sufficient reason.
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 A photograph must be “read” without criticism. When we dislike a photograph,
we immediately shut off any further communication. When we like a photograph,
we are pleased to carry on a relationship with it through an interchange of visual
and verbal symbols. Once evaluation is suspended, one can concentrate on the
significance of the picture.
The critic develops ways of withholding judgment long enough to find what is
going on in the picture. Analysis may be used to keep the conscious mind busy so
that the intuitive side of the man can go to work. Often the critic will bring a
whole system of analysis to bear in order to free the intuitive forces within
himself. He keeps his attention on the visuals of a picture without losing sight of
the significance.
It is important to decide whether the photograph is documentary, pictorial,
informational, or some other kind of photograph. There are appropriate methods
for experiencing each type of photograph. The informational photograph can be
read for the information it contains in a special field, and it can be read pictorially
if we bypass information and observe its aesthetic qualities. In the case of the pic-
torial photograph, we isolate those associations which seem to pertain to the
photograph. The graphics, the design, and all the other visual concepts are the
means to tell another person about the photograph's pertinent associations.
Empathy And Projection
The projection of human qualities during the contemplation of a photograph is
an active lead into experiencing pictures. A photograph may suggest faces or other
parts of human anatomy, and if the spectator is not able to catch a fairly obvious
visual suggestion, it may indicate a person who is temperamentally incapable of
contemplation. The next step from seeing faces and anatomy is to see personality.
The step beyond the projection of personality is the projection of spirit and the
receiving of spirit during the period when a photograph is contemplated. The
process of empathy, or “feeling into” a photograph with the muscles, bones and
flesh, is an active way of responding to pictures. The energy that is directed to the
picture by projection comes back by empathy. The danger lies in cutting active
empathy off before the spirit of the photograph has been perceived.

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 Associations And The Subconscious
When the camera has moved in so close to a familiar object that it becomes
unfamiliar, the photograph must be experienced through the associations that run
between the subconscious and surface mind. The associations should be sorted out
and the ones that seem to pertain to the photograph isolated. The spectator should
let associations rise within himself, and ask: What do the various parts of the
photograph remind me of—visually? What does the picture as a whole suggest?
Associations may lead us far away from what is obviously part of the picture
content; but no harm is done, because part of the experience of a photograph is
sorting out all the associations a picture arouses in us to find the one which is the
most pertinent to the picture and to ourselves.
Characteristics Of The Experience
What you find in a photograph will be your own. There is not a right answer and
many wrong ones. There are as many right answers as there are persons who
contemplate the picture, and the only wrong answer is no experience at all.
Whether the more active or more passive method is used, the result of the
contemplation is to be experience. This may happen through a flame burst of
understanding, or it may occur after the picture has been lived with for some
period of time. A photograph may be engaged casually by the subconscious mind
for weeks or months before it is set up as a target for intense concentration. During
this time the unconscious engages the photograph in its own way, and all of the
various things that are present in the photograph provide a rich feast for the
subconscious mind.
The Experience And Communication
No one can predict what another person will experience when he reads a
photograph. The experience must be accepted for what it is. Moreover, once the
surface meaning of a photograph is identified it takes concentration and dis-
cipline to read a photograph.
Many people see themselves in photographs, and most of us see what we wish to
see in a photograph, or anything else except what is actually present. Projection
and empathy lead us to see something of ourselves almost automatically in
anything that we look at long enough to be aware of. The photograph, therefore,
invariably functions as a mirror of at least some part of the viewer. Many persons
looking at a photograph see something of themselves before they see anything
else.
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 Some degree of mirroring happens with any photograph, but it is especially
strong with the non-literal or stylized photograph. Mirroring is also strong in
photographs where the presence of design is equal to or stronger than the sense of
the presence of the subject in front of the camera. When subject matter is rendered
in an obscure or ambiguous fashion, we invent a subject for it. What we invent is
derived from ourselves, and the photograph becomes a mirror of some part of
ourselves.
Many contemporary photographers, notably Frederick Sommer, present images
that are intended to cause the viewer to see something of himself. The photograph
causes the viewer to be confronted with something of himself. If what he sees is
unpleasant, some part of himself may be unpleasant. If what he sees is
magnificent, it is because something beautiful in him has been magnified.
The creative photographer must practice the most conscious criticism. Is what he
saw present in the photograph? If not, does the photograph reveal something he
could not see by himself? He must either be willing to take the responsibility for
the accident and show it as his own, or consider it as a sketch for his subconscious
to digest. Furthermore, he needs to study the reactions of the viewers: Do they
match his own? Come close? Or depart in some other direction? Visual
communication demands conscious criticism and an understanding of what the
prints do, as compared to what we want them to do.
Blocks To Understanding
Having a feeling, and photographing what causes that feeling, is no assurance
that others will experience a similar feeling in the reading of a photograph. A
person can read his own photographs rather deeply, but it is questionable whether
one can do so to the photographs of another photographer. Secondly, most people
will either not read a photograph, or else they will read it as a mirror of
themselves. Only the trained critic will be more objective and analyze the
photograph for itself. This is done by drawing a tight line between interpretation
and what one actually sees in the photograph.
Instant Criticism
Immediate value judgments are the prime factor in preventing involvement with
photographs. We must be prepared to postpone judgment of “good,” “bad,” “like,”
or “dislike,” until later. The actions that these words call up destroy any possibility
of extending our perception while working with a picture.

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 Plain Sense Of The Image
Sometimes, whether or not we experience a photograph depends upon our
recognition of the subject photographed. There are literal minded and design
ignorant people—design conscious and sympathetic viewers—non-literal or
symbolic minded people, and photographs can range from the literal image where
the subject is unmistakable to the ambiguous or non-literal image.
Wrong Anticipations And Misreading Facts
If a viewer identifies the original subject of an ambiguous photograph
incorrectly, obviously he is off on the wrong track. Even if he can verbalize
profusely about the photograph, he will misread it. A lack of life experiences is the
main reason that young persons are prone to misread images, but unfamiliar
objects generally need captions to get the viewer off on the right track.
Wrong anticipations have a high frequency among viewers. The person who
demands that any photograph be of people will find it impossible to fully
experience the landscape. The person who believes that all photographs should be
beautiful will be blind to those that are not. Preconceptions and high standards of
perfection prevent involvement with images that fall below an arbitrary standard.
Memory Jogs
Our involvement with images is based on associations and past experiences.
Frequently an image will serve as a memory jog to form associations that lead the
viewer away from the picture and into his past life. The photographer can predict
neither the specific memory jog nor its effect on a particular viewer. When the
train of associations leads the viewer into the realm of past memories that have no
bearing on the image, both the picture and the photographer are lost.
If the viewer keeps his attention on the image, universal associations will prevail
that are common to both the viewer and photographer. It is only when the viewer
attends to the image at hand, that the photographer has a chance to make valid
predictions of the viewer's potential experience of the photograph.

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 Compulsive Reactions
A person in a state of identification with something can twist almost any image
into a mirror of his or her own inner state. The process is somewhat like the train
of associations set off by the memory jog; except that it leads into the present. As
with the memory jog, the photographer can never hope to predict experience when
this interference occurs.
Stock Answers
Cliches or stock answers reveal a poor imagination on the part of the viewer and
sidetrack involvement with the image. The most original image in the world can
elicit stock answers from a person who has not been able to make contact with the
photograph.
Verbalizing
A form of talking that is a substitute for any contact with the image. It is
monotonous, unrelated to the content of the image, and closely related to stock
answers.
Doctrinal Adhesions
A person's stand in relation to religion, politics, schools of art, or fields of
photography, etc., can be a strong barrier to involvement with images.
Sentimentality
An interference, on a par with doctrinal adhesions, that practically blinds the
viewer to what the image says.
Inhibitions
Personal and emotional tie-ups are generally unpredictable. Inhibitions not only
affect a person's life, they affect his acceptance of images. In an apparently
random way, they determine the viewer's acceptance or rejection of certain kinds
of photographs. Inhibitions in life are carried over to looking at images in
photography, and they have a similar effect on response as prejudices and
preconceptions.

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 Feelings Of Inadequacy
Feelings of inadequacy occur when there is a feeling that the photo image in
question has a “right” answer, or a specific meaning, and the person is afraid to
make a mistake. There may be a variety of causes, including: a real inability to
verbalize, a determination to keep the visual experience free of verbal
entanglements, or simply a failure to get involved and a reluctance to admit that no
reaction has taken place.
Apathy
There may he a refusal to get involved with something that “does not turn us
on.” This block can be overcome by willful “turning on” by the viewer himself.
Either-Or
Either-or thinking sabotages seeing because pet theories can make us think that
no other kind of image is fit for anything. It is a trap that critics frequently fall
into.
Avoidance Of The Issue When Under Pressure
This commonly occurs in a classroom, workshop, or interview situation, when a
person is expected to externalize his experience. Avoidance takes place when the
viewer must say something, but there is little or no involvement with the image.
The spectator may: describe the subject, describe and criticize the composition,
and describe or question the technique. Technical questions are a standard
reaction. Sometimes, the viewer wants to find out how the image was made in
order to later go out and do the same. The description may mask angers aroused
because the spectator is forced to observe his failure to make contact with the
image, or the spectator may describe the obvious because he is afraid of making
mistakes. Saying, “I like it” without elaboration is another form of avoidance.
Emotional Blocks Through Analysis
It is important to guard against emotional blocks which can occur when
intellectual analysis takes place. Responses may be emotional as well as
intellectual. It is possible for an image to hold something for the spectator
intellectually and be an emotional blank.

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 Types Of Responses And What They Indicate
The study and evaluation of responses is a means by which the photographer can
go outside of himself and study the effect of a photograph on other people. By
evaluating the implications of a response, the photographer is able to really get an
insight into other people so that he is in a better position to communicate with
them. Response evaluation serves as a feedback technique for the photographer.
The fact that a rapport between the photographer and his subject has been
recorded, does not insure a response in others. Response evaluation can show how
little a picture has actually communicated, or it can reveal things we never saw in
our own photographs.
The matter of responses and their meaning is a complex study. A response can be
physical, emotional, associational, or intellectual. It can also be on more than one
level at once. The key to the study has been found to be reducible to the axiom:
when people talk about pictures they talk about themselves first and the picture
next if at all. Responding to a visual experience is largely a matter of getting rid of
blocks and inhibitions that stand in the way of freely experiencing what is before
us. If the photographer can recognize an emotional block in himself, he will
understand it and know when it occurs in others because he will already have
understood it within himself.
The Identification Of Subject Matter
The identification of subject matter is the lowest common denominator of a
response to a photograph. A meaningful experience with a photograph requires
some degree of imagination on the spectator's part if there is to be an interaction
between the photograph and the viewer of the photograph. At best, a photograph is
a step towards a mental image, and it is the mental image evoked in another person
by which photography communicates.
Multivalence
“Multivalence” is a term that refers to the possibility of more than one meaning
or interpretation to the same response. For example, “I like it” can mean many
things The person may be inarticulate, the photograph may not offend him in any
way, or he may really like it. When the response is multivalent, the photographer
encounters the problem of what to do with the response. Right at the beginning he
is faced with the problem of how well an individual verbalizes his response.

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 The Person Who Doesn't Want To Self-Searching
This person either has no imagination or is deliberately blinding himself to
visual experiences that might disturb his basic security. The full range of
photographic possibilities of communication-evocation is a closed world to him.
Oblivious Response
Some persons react as if they had never seen the picture they are looking at.
These individuals would probably give substantially the same response to any
photograph. Any photograph would mirror back to them whatever mild
compulsion was uppermost at the time.
Verbalization
Verbalizing is a means of escape from life and it indicates that the spectator is
avoiding contact with certain or all forms of life as they are represented in a
photograph. Verbalization is full of cliches and indicates a lack of contact with the
image.
Rejection
When the photograph is independent of the original subject, the viewer may
reject the photograph because he can't identify the original subject or he may
willingly engage the photograph because it is an event in its own right. Photo-
graphs in which the subject is hard to identify separate viewers into two groups:
those who are offended at being denied subject identification and reject the
photograph—and a second group of sophisticated viewers who will accept the
photograph for its own sake.
The subject-recognizable photograph separates an audience into classes along
different lines. The literal photograph separates the people-oriented from the
nature lovers. The viewer who is a purist will tend to prefer the representational
photograph. White has found that the literal photograph acts as a kind of bridge
from the viewer back to the original subject and the non-literal acts more as a
direct source of experience.
Responses can be classified as Negative, Neutral, and Pertinent. A negative or
neutral response may turn into a pertinent one even while a person is talking about
a photograph. If there is a lapse of time between seeing the photograph and the
attempt to verbalize, a change of response is common. The response change of
pertinent to neutral or negative is less likely to happen.

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 Negative responses prevent the viewer from understanding any statement a
photograph might possibly communicate or any feeling it might evoke. However,
White warned that this must be taken as a general statement because some people
seem to take a delight in photographs that they hate. No one will remember
pictures to which they are indifferent.
No Comment
This response often indicates a lack of sensitivity, at least to the photograph in
question. The same response to a number of photographs may indicate either a
lack of sensitivity to visual matters or an inarticulate but visual- minded
individual. This type of person may be able to express himself with gestures or
pencil and paper drawings. Sometimes a drawing together with a few words will
reveal the spectator's thoughts or a state of feeling.
I Like It-I Don't Like It
This indicates an incapacity to communicate verbally, or it can indicate a lack of
sensitivity on the part of the individual. This response may or may not be true,
because the spectator may feel he has to make some kind of response and so he
takes the easiest way out. If he tells you he likes it, he may think your photograph
is better or he may be trying to make you happy.
If a person rejects a photograph, he closes his mind to further traffic with that
image. If the photographer can discover the reasons, they usually provide the
photographer with information. Sometimes the photographer is not at fault. The
reasons may have little or no connection with the photograph.
I Just Love It
This reaction usually indicates that the image has triggered the individual into
remembering some former state of euphoria. The phrase is often followed by a
glowing account of the remembered event.
The Changers
Persons who would have taken it differently, or indicate that it should be cropped
differently, rarely see the photograph as a statement by another person. The
changer either substitutes some problem of his own, or finds his own photograph
within the picture. He seldom responds to the picture itself.

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 This is not really a response but a return to the original subject. The spectator is
not responding to what the photograph says, but he is using wrong material for
what he would like to say. The important question is this: Is the spectator changing
the photograph because he would like to make it into his picture, or is he changing
it to clarify what the photographer is trying to say? This is a fascinating response
to watch because of what the changer reveals about himself.
The Bluffers
A person may feel compelled to say something about a given photograph
because he has agreed beforehand to do so. Stock answers, such as “life and
death” or “old and new” may appear out of desperation or when a person is
indifferent to a particular photograph.
If a person is a habitual bluffer, the response may be interesting because it takes
considerable intelligence to talk one's way through a photograph in a convincing
manner. Sometimes the bluffer's response may be pertinent to the photographer
because the bluffer may inadvertently cause a moment of understanding for the
photographer. On other occasions, as the bluffer talks what comes off the top of his
head may lead him toward understanding something about the photograph.
It's Been Done Before
A person who has had a considerable experience with photographs may reject a
photograph that is less successful than others that he is reminded of, or because it
reminds him of a class of photographs that he has long wearied of or otherwise
rejected. If the attitude denies the viewer entry into the photograph it is a negative
response; if the discussion points out the correspondence to previous photographs
it may be a neutral response. This response ordinarily comes from persons with
considerable experience with photographs, either in a given field such as
advertising or news, or an individual with a wide historical knowledge of
photographs.
Neutral Responses
If a photographer consistently inspires this kind of response, he should seriously
consider some other form of self-expression or find another group of persons for
his audience. This response indicates that communication is not taking place.

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 Literal Description
The individual describes the picture part by part or stops with the identification
of objects. For such persons, identification usually ends the experience of a
photograph. The person who counts objects in a photograph frequently fails to
observe the relationships. Once a photograph has been pigeonholed in this manner,
the door to further exploration of the photograph is closed. Literal description
indicates that no communication has taken place between a photographer and his
audience. The spectator has only seen what he can or wants to see.
Technical Analysis
Technical analysis, like literal description, indicates a lack of communication
between a photographer and his audience. Technical discussion avoids the
necessity of making contact with what the photograph reports or evokes. Bluffers
sometimes resort to this.
Description Of Graphic Design
This response generally comes from persons with art and design training, and it
can be an avoidance of the pertinent meanings of a photograph as much as can a
literal or technical description. On the other hand, some photographs offer little
more than graphic design to an audience. In such cases, a discussion of design and
composition is pertinent and appropriate.
The Historical Viewpoint
Seeing the photograph in question against other photographs may or may not be
a neutral response. It is neutral if comparisons are made on an intellectual level to
the exclusion of the emotional level, or if the comparisons are a way of avoiding
the humanistic statement of the photograph in question. To some persons, pure
form is as meaningful and emotional as significant form is to others. Responses in
this category are always useful to the photographer because they are informational.
Pertinent Responses
Profound and effective involvements with photographs lead to pertinent
responses. This kind of response goes beyond rejection and superficial visual
conversations with photographs. The spectator who makes a pertinent response
finds some kind of symbol of his own personal experience in the photograph and
relates himself to it. The response pertains to both the photograph and the
spectator.

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 The tangibles, such as tone values, composition, design relationships and the
various photographic concepts are relevant. They are the only safe and secure
ground upon which verbalizing can take place. But, because people also respond
to the intangible qualities of a photograph, they are also a part of the pertinent
response. The actual nature of most pertinent responses escapes either
verbalization or visualizing by gesture or sketches. Therefore, about all the
photographer can hope for are clues to the fact that the individual is experiencing
the photograph.
Sense Of Presence
When the spectator relates the subject of a photograph to its surroundings, he is
beginning to have a response with the picture. He is beginning to get involved
with it. Responses require a curiosity, on the part of the spectator, as to what is
behind a picture—a curiosity as to: when, where, and how it was taken—or a
discussion of the mood of the place, event, or the individual. These curiosities, on
the part of the spectator, indicate an involvement with the picture and therefore
some response.
The spectator may feel that he is in the presence of some place, person, event, or
mystery. Sometimes the feeling of presence takes the form of speculating on how
the photographer felt while he was in the presence of a place or an event. In other
cases, tactile sensations are aroused by the photograph, and our response can be
related to the tactile imagery which the photograph evokes. For example, the
textures seen in a photograph of bark or sand may arouse the appropriate
sensations in the hands of the viewer.
Deduction From Visible Clues
Two broad classes of photographs can be set up: those pictures that transform the
subject and those which represent recognizable subject matter. Some factual
photographs ask questions which the viewer can answer from the information
provided in the photograph. When this happens, the spectator may attempt to sort
out the implications of the photographic facts. The spectator has to engage the
photograph in order to locate an answer, and so an interchange takes place
between him and the photographic illusion of subjects and their relationships. The
spectator of the photograph may wonder: who lived in this house or what kind of
person lives behind this face?

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 Recognition Of An Immediate Symbolism
The identification of standard symbols, where they are actually present, indicates
a relevant and pertinent response. A photograph may depend on a long established
symbol but sometimes it will function as a new statement of a universal feeling.
Conversion
Conversion into signs and symbols bring involvement not with the object but
with the symbol of the object. There can be real involvement if the symbol is not
merely a cliché. Otherwise, these have a tendency to be standardized responses.
Anthropomorphizing
The projection of human characteristics to an image can be irrelevant, however,
one must engage a photograph long enough to do it. Anthropomorphizing indicates
that a response is happening.
Anthropomorphizing occurs when we see faces in rocks or parking meters, and
when people project such human qualities as courage, anger, love, hope, or spirit,
etc. The anthropomorphized forms rarely match the feeling evoked by the rest of
the picture. Generally, they bear a relation to the viewer's own personality. This
response is common when the subject of a photograph is ambiguous or cannot be
identified.
The Photograph As A Source of Experience
In the extreme case, where the original subject has been completely transformed,
the viewer has to invent his own subject for it or else be able to respond to “pure
form” for its own sake. The spectator may: anthropomorphize, thereby making
kinesthetic and physical projections into the photograph; respond to the
photograph as though it were a memory trigger for immediate associations; use the
photograph as a mirror of the self; or use the photograph to project into the
photographer's experience and/or personality. These responses indicate that
something is going on, but they can be irrelevant as far as the photograph is
concerned. They can also be thorough and objective responses.

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 Exploration Of The Mirror Nature Of Photographs
Any response is a projection of the inner-self to some degree. The spectator,
who has the curiosity to explore the mirror nature of photographs, can use the
photograph to see a manifestation of his own inner workings. The photographer
has to have a considerable knowledge of both himself and other people before he
will be able to distinguish between an abnormal psychological response, and a
response which reveals something pertinent about the spectator and the photo-
graph.
Responses As If the Photograph Were An Equivalent
When the spectator becomes aware that the image directs his attention outwardly
into the world, he may experience a relationship of himself to the universe. The
photographer may not be able to see even a clue to the experience.
Intellectual Responses
An intellectual response means that there is an intellectual process functioning in
the mind of the viewer. If you look at a photograph and are made instantly aware
of the composition, size, and shape relationships, the photograph may in effect be
suggesting that this is the way you should look at it. When this is so, one could
attempt to respond to it on an intellectual basis.
Evaluation Of The Response
To communicate feelings with photography, it is necessary to first know
something about the photograph. A photograph must be thoroughly comprehended
before it can be put in relation to some other experience or feeling. It must be
understood before it can be used in various contexts and for various purposes. A
photograph cannot function as an Equivalent for a particular poem, or as an
advertisement for a product, if the idea-feeling is not the same.
If the photographer's response indicates that certain feelings are present, others
may be able to respond similarly. It is important to understand how a photograph
makes us feel to understand how it will affect others, and it is important to know
something about the individual who is going to see a particular photograph. A
knowledgeable photographer should know the scope of what he can do with a
photograph and when to use a particular type of photograph. Non-objective photo-
graphs, for example, can set off free associations that the spectator may want to
repress because they are painful for one reason or another. Thus, a photograph can
lead the audience into areas that they don't want to see.
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 The Study Of One's Own Photographs
If the photographer studies his own photograph until he has seen everything
present, he is in a better position to predict the possible responses of other people.
The potentials within the photograph include: facts, relationships, what the
photograph reminds you of, and the whole range of where the image reaches you.
That is to say, whether the response is through the intellect, the emotions, or
physical sensations.
White described how the photographer can isolate additional features of the
photograph for study with drawn overlays: The two dimensional surface of any
photograph has certain large space divisions caused by the distribution of light and
dark tones. These main divisions can be drawn on a piece of transparent paper laid
over the photograph. The overlay is taken off and studied independently of the
photograph. Separate overlays can be made for still other patterns; for example,
the pattern formed by the blacks and dark values treated together. Likewise the
separate patterns formed by isolating the middle gray values, or the light values, or
the textural distribution.
The photographer, in studying and responding to these isolated aspects of the
photograph, should allow the overlays to touch his suggestibility, his sensations,
his intellect, and his emotions, singly or all together. Sometimes the responses are
the same as was aroused by the photograph as a whole, but sometimes completely
different feelings will appear.
Collation Of Photographer's Experiences
By the study of sketches and overlays the photographer can come up with more
associative, emotional, kinesthetic and intellectual responses in himself. No matter
how strange, irrelevant, or alike the responses may be they are converted into
words or sketches. New responses are added to the list made from the photograph
itself. This kind of extension is useful, because no matter how “way out” a
response may seem to the photographer, it is likely that some spectator will have
the same response to the photograph. By arming himself with a long list of
possible responses, the photographer is in a position to say that he can predict the
responses of a group of people, though not of individual people.

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 Collation Of Viewer's Experiences With Your Own
To collate the viewer experience data with your own, key words or key phrases
can be lifted from each viewer's experience. The key words should be divided into
two groups: those which correspond to your own key words and phrases and those
which are different.
It is exceedingly important to write down and observe the experiences which are
unlike your own. It is a natural tendency to forget, overlook, or never hear
experiences that differ from what we want to see or hear. But, the interviewer must
be especially on the lookout for unique and rare reactions and responses to a
photograph. Finally, conclusions should be drawn and written out as clearly as
possible.
Prediction Of Visual Experience
The photographer can control and predict the visual experience of the spectator
insofar as he can evoke known feeling states in other people. He can make a
photograph that appeals predominantly to the emotional, intellectual, or the
kinesthetic-tactile side of an audience; but he has no assurance that others will
experience the photograph fully. Even if the photograph corresponds to an idea-
feeling that the spectator or viewer of the photograph has experienced, blocks may
occur which prevent any understanding of the image.
Nevertheless, advanced creativity in photography lies in affecting changes in the
inner state of the viewer's mind by means of the photographic image. These
changes are predictable to the extent that: the photographer comprehends the
photograph fully, understands his own response, and understands the nature of the
picture audience.
Evaluation Of Photographs
A photograph creates a mental image within a person, which in turn leads to
change or metamorphoses. Evaluation is the act of deciding whether a
photographic image depletes or nourishes in the course of producing this change.
If the photograph nourishes, it is good. If it depletes or takes away, it is bad.
Nourishing photographs are always exciting and moving. They produce a change
of psychological state towards power, euphoria, warmth, floating, or love. Deplet-
ing photographs create such overwhelmingly negative reactions as: anger, conflict,
fear, annoyance, pride, or vanity.

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 A good photograph evokes responses rather than reactions within the viewer. It is
a photograph which makes appropriate use of the image, and nourishes rather than
depletes. The photographer who is capable of creating this kind of an image is able
to respond to the world around him and able to make an audience respond. He
must bear responsibility to himself, to his medium, and to his audience. Likewise,
an audience that is a good or creative one, must bear responsibility to itself, to the
medium, and to the photographer. It should make an effort to respond to a
photograph rather than to react.
Heightened Awareness Exercise
Find something to look at such as a branch, photograph, sculpture etc. – almost
anything will do. Isolate the object and look at it, spending at least a half an hour,
preferably an hour. Continue to look at it to the exclusion of everything else,
nothing else is to be thought about, sounds are not to be heard. The objective is to
reach a condition in which you and the object are alone in the world. When the
object seems to grow more three-dimensional or more brilliant, you have reached a
state of concentration.
The objective is to learn to observe the subject of a photograph in a state of
heightened awareness so that you are able to perceive its essential characteristics
and its very essence. The important clue is that some kind of change occurs. You
will see it occur in the object, though obviously it does not change. Hence the
change is in yourself, meaning that some degree of heightened awareness is
present.
After performing the exercise, turn away from the object or image that you made
contact with. And, from memory sub-vocally talk the various experiences
undergone during the process of relaxation, anticipation, and contact. When the
internal talk is done, write out the recalled experiences in detail without looking at
the object or image again. Give most of the attention to the process. What does
relaxing feel like? What are the sensations as anticipation is directed towards the
eyes? What sensation or event occurred as you opened your eyes? What is the
feeling that lets you know that you are in a state of heightened awareness?
Describe in detail whatever seemed like a preliminary contact. Sometimes it is
rewarding to refer back to the object or image after the report is done.
This exercise should be carried out with several kinds of subjects, including
photographs. Write up each experience before starting a new one. Leave time
between each contact. Come to the exercise as fresh as possible each time.
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 Equivalence Exercise
Select a photograph that you have already made. If you have not put it through a
siege of contemplation and can verbalize its idea, do so. Then set about to find an
object which when photographed will evoke the same feeling or idea. And, recall
a tagged feeling straight from your inner landscape. Find an object or event which,
when photographed will be a lucid statement of that feeling.
Sketching Exercises
Minor White found the practice of sketching to be irreplaceable in forcing
students to look and see carefully without words. He described the association
between sketching and the silence of seeing in his 1972 Creative Audience
manuscript, where he wrote: Sketching strengthens the visual experiencing of
visual events; it may help us notice sub-word and even silent word thinking during
seeing, and observe that such inner talking can only bring accidental, irrelevant,
verbal associations to an image. We seek a tool to promote non-verbal seeing for
photographers; and the sketch is such a tool.
Sketching exercises in Creative Audience and workshops included realistic,
abstract, and diagrammatic sketching done to communicate (1) feelings which are
generated by interior sources; (2) representational replicas of external sources; (3)
responses to external sources, and (4) fantasies and inventions.
Self Sketch (Projections And Personality)
Without looking at the object, sketch the experience. Try not to vocalize as your
sketch. Look at a photograph and sketch the important events that happened to
you. Avoid representative renderings if possible. We all project something of
ourselves on everything all the time. We see what we want to see and usually at
the expense of the person, object, or place. This exercise is intended to help us see
what it is that we project. The problem in this exercise is to keep from a literal or
imitation sketch. This exercise aims to help you understand that what you project
is a property of yourself and does not belong to the object. Write up the
observations and discoveries.

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 The Essence Sketch
The point of the exercise is to somehow reach the inner reality of the object, that
lives or hides beneath the surface. Aim to reach the essence that properly belongs
to the object, not some part of yourself. The object is to try to reach the objective
essence of the object itself in spite of yourself—in spite of a strong tendency to
project something of yourself onto the object. We all have this tendency, we all
want to see the object in our way, even if in covering the object with our own
likeness, we lose entirely the reality of the object, place, situation, or person. The
point of the Essence Sketch is to manifest an inner, more fundamental form, the
objective though intangible uniqueness of the object. This should be repeated
several times with other subjects. For example, select a few related objects, or a
fairly complex picture and explore in contact the relationships within the image.
Tactile Involvement Exercise
Become aware of the eye-to-touch connection to aid empathetic response. Have
a prolonged involvement with an object or photograph and magnify your seeing
through touch. Seeing is magnified through touch by noticing the effect of certain
subjects on certain parts of the body. What does a picture suggest to your sense of
sight, touch, hearing, and smell? Can you imagine what the textures “feel” like?
Previsualization Exercise
Envisioning a photographic print while still observing a scene or subject.
Gestalt Flexing Exercise
Mentally investigating options in zone system printing. Turning the technical
procedures of the zone system into the basis for self-awareness exercises in
mental-image construction.
Imagining the scene as it will appear transformed into a black-and-white
photographic image, and performing a mental exercise of visual reversal (such as
imagining a black cat as white). Imagining visual tone reversal by exploring a
negative. Picking out three color zones in a picture and mentally imaging one
zone at a time. Mentally shifting the gestalt, generating a new pattern in a process
of “gestalt flexing,” as White called it in his 1976 “Visualization Manual.”
Superimposition Exercise
Mentally superimposing an imagined image on a present scene, or looking at
juxtaposed images, alphabet letters, or objects and imagining them as
superimposed.
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 See Like A Camera Exercise
Looking or seeing as if a camera—but carrying no camera.
Prose Exercise
After contacting and turning off from the image, responding to the experience
with prose.
Link Words Exercise
Putting two photographs next to one another and finding one to five words that
link the images.
Effect Of Images On Images Exercise
Find a clipping or photograph, preferably of a face that has no distinct
emotional cast (obvious smile, for example). Put other illustrations beside it, one
at a time, and observe what happens to the face in the primary image (a 'noun'
photograph). Does the expression change? Does the modifying photograph
satisfy or explain what the person is looking at? Or, seem to cause a change of
expression without observable reason? When you have found a modifier that
causes an apparent change, set that one aside. Go through the clippings (or
photographs) again—to find other modifiers that cause a different change in the
'noun' photograph. Perhaps you will be able to find three or four or half dozen
photographs which affect the first one in a slight but noticeable way. If it seems
nothing happens to the original photograph—pick another—the affinities of
photographs are various indeed. Those that remain unaffected no matter what are
generally closed-form images.
Effect Of Words On Images Exercise
Find a clipping or photograph for the prime objective (noun). Write words or
phrases on separate slips of paper. Almost any words thought up at random—
except words that describe—sometimes they work too. Let your imagination go
free—think up words, phrases, whole sentences thoughtlessly.
Lay the pictures on a table—place the slips of paper beside or under one at a
time. You can anticipate that now and then a combination will appear that
unexpectedly connects with a jot. Both contribute to a statement that neither can
make alone.

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 In both of these exercises watch that moment in yourself when the print image
'changes'. It is a remarkable moment. Some people have likened it to the mind
moving ahead and then suddenly having to reverse itself—and just at that moment
of reversal something opened up—then almost immediately closed. Perhaps you
can catch what happens at that moment of 'reversal'. This moment is described in
as many ways as there are people.
Looking At Photographs Extended To Different Levels
You should look at photographs in multi-faceted ways. Sit in front of the
photograph and:
First Level Recognize the subject level of things for what they are.
Second Level Try to realize the emotions felt.
Third Level Analyze the social, historical, and political arena: Where does it fit
into the history of photography? Does it echo other photographers?
Fourth Level Undertake Freudian and Jungian exploration at this level of
psychological analysis. See faces, symbols, and what the photograph's
suggests through its associations.
Fifth Level Discover what one can regarding the photographer.
Sixth Level Let the photograph speak at this level of passive concentration.
Sensing Resonance Exercise
At film exposure, or on viewing, sense the subject or image “reaching out to
you” as you extend consciousness to it. What are the unseen forces that interact
between the subject and yourself?
Converting Pictures Into Movement Exercise
How would you make movement(s) with your hands or body that would
describe how you feel or how you sense a picture? We are not trying to make
imitation movements. We can communicate to other people through movements.
This can be done on the back of someone's hands to denote what we feel with
movements.

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 Photography can communicate non-verbally and through the tactile sense of
touch and contact communication. How would you express in a tactile way your
feeling or sensation from the picture? Could you draw shapes with your hand?
Could you beat out some kind of a rhythm or tap it out on the back of someone in
front of you?
Tell someone what you experienced. Notice that there wasn't much criticism in
what you were saying. Conversation was not critical in dealing with the
experience.
Photographic Exercises
(1)To make a photograph or series of photographs that capture the essence of a
place.
(2)To photograph things “for what they are” and “for what else they are”.
(3)The anthropomorphic assignment in which the students set out to
photograph things which had the appearance or characteristic of the human.
(4)Synchronization or Pursuit of Chance Exercise in which the photographer is
to: Locate an area of peeled paint, or other written-over-by-chance area.
Consider it a random collection of pictographs of form of hieroglyphic and
attempt to isolate a section you think you can read. Treat chance temporarily
as anthropomorphic and try to decipher its messages from the unknown to
yourself. Contemplate it or photograph it for contemplation.
(5)Equivalence Exercises: Select a photograph that you have already made. If
you have not put it through a siege of contemplation and can verbalize its
idea, do so. Then set about to find an object which when photographed will
evoke the same feeling or idea. And, recall a tagged feeling straight from
your inner landscape. Find an object or event which, when photographed
will be a lucid statement of that feeling.
(6)Sequencing Exercise: From 20 or 50 random prints, find 2 that relate
because their inner voice is in harmony. Contemplate them.

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 Memorable Quotations
“When An Urgency Is Present,
It seems To Find Many Mirrors Of Itself In The Visual World.”

“All Photographs Are Self-Portraits”

“Images Can Be A Record Of An Inner State

That The Photographer Neither Remembers Seeing Nor Experiencing
At The Moment Of Exposure.”

The Image Can Be Seen To Mean Different Things To Us At Different Times –

And Since We Project Our Feelings
We Say That The Photograph Changes Its Meaning.”

“The Photographer, Instead Of Photographing That Which Is,

Can Photograph That Which He Himself Is.”

“Photographs Work As Equivalents With Certain People At Certain Times.

The Same Photograph Shown To Another Person
May Or May Not Function As An Equivalent.”

“Dreams And Photographs Have Something In Common,

Those Photographs That Yield To Contemplation
At Least Have A Quality About Them That Tempt
One To Set Associations Going.”

“What You Will Find Will Be Your Own.

The Experience Cannot Be Compared To Addition
Because That Implies One Right Answer And Many Wrong Ones.
Instead The Experience Should Be Compared To An Equation
One Factor Of Which Is The Viewer’s State Of Mind.
When So Treated There Are As Many Right Answers
As Persons Who Contemplate The Picture;
And Only One Wrong Answer – No Experience.”

“Let Associations Rise Like A Flock Of Birds From A Field.

What Do Various Parts Of The Photograph Remind You Of – Visually?
What Does The Picture As A Whole Suggest Again Visually?”

“If A Photograph Is Gazed At In Silence, Wordless Silence,

Until Intuitive Understanding Flashes –
An Inner State Of Awareness Is Reached.
In Zen It Is Called Koan. When The Koan Is Resolved,
It Is Realized To Be A Simple And Clear Statement
Made From The State Of Consciousness Which It Has Helped To Waken.”

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 “Reading Photographs Is The Visual (Non-Verbal) Understanding
Of The Relationships Within A Photograph.
And, It Is The Understanding Of The Relations Between Two Or More Images.
Understanding On Any Level; Subject Matter, Design, Psychology, Technique –
May Lead To Vision.
Reading Photographs At A Verbal Level Becomes A Translation
From Visual To Verbal, With All The Problem That Translations
From One Language To Another Entail.
In This Case, The Translation Is From Photography To Literature.”

“Very Often I try To Find Something That Matches A Feeling I Have.

On The Other Hand, A Lot Of Times I Photograph With Nothing Specific In Mind.
I Just Play It As It Comes.
If It’s Good, Fine.
I Find ‘Letting It Happen’ Relaxing, A Playful Vacation.
Stimulating Pictures Almost Always Result.”

“The Unexpected Image Was The Record Of An Inner State

That I Did Not Remember Seeing And Did Not Remember Experiencing
At The Moment Of Exposure.”

“When I Looked At Things For What They Are I Was Fool Enough To Persist
In My Folly And Found That Each Photograph Was A Mirror Of My Self.”

“A Sequence Of Photographs Is Like A Cinema Of Stills.

The Time And Space Between Photographs Is Filled By The Beholder,
First Of All From Himself, Then From What He Can Read
In The Implications Of Design, The Suggestions Springing From Treatment,
And Any Symbolism That Might Grow From Within The Subject Itself.”

“At First Glance A Photograph Can Inform Us.

At Second Glance It Can Reach Us.”

“Photography Is A Language More Universal Than Words”

“Photography, used as a fine art, is what any artist makes of it. For the analytical artist,
photography is a tool to record his visual curiosity, his visual understanding, and his visual
contemplation of the world. For the objective artist, photography can reveal the meanings of
things and render surfaces with love and beauty. The subjective artist can use photography
as a means of self-expression – simply by dissociating the subject from its connotations.
When photography is used in this manner, the unconscious mind can be reached through the
reading of the photograph’s design. Discarding the connotations of subjects leaves them
symbols that can be read like dreams. The world of the unconscious mind is turned into the
raw material of art.”

Minor White. “What is Photography?,” Photo Notes, (Spring, 1950).

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 “The photographic image can be a record of an inner state that the photographer neither
remembers seeing nor experiencing at the moment of exposure. The photographer can put
things into the subconscious and get a visual answer in time – if he works in a seeing state
with a blank and responsive mind, and if something is fed into the subconscious mind through
meditation. Sometimes the relationship between what has been fed into the subconscious
can be seen instantly, sometimes only after the print is seen in meditation.
The photographer’s task is to make emotional feelings come out visually. The process by
which this occurs can be called: The Unconscious Creative Cycle. First, an idea feeling
becomes isolated and drops into the subconscious from the surface mind. The
photographer’s mind is thus sensitized, and found objects or objects in the studio develop into
an idea when put together. Next, there is a visual echo of the idea feeling. The photographer
recognizes that something exciting has happened, but he may or may not know the cause.
The photograph may be the result of contemplation and previsualization; or it can be created
very quickly, as a result of the photographer’s recognition that something of importance has
taken place. Finally, the new photograph is contemplated and the idea feeling is identified.
The conscious and unconscious are united by feeling, which leads to their fusion in a
spontaneous public image or photograph.”

Statement by Minor White during a lecture on Visual Communication, Rochester

Institute of Technology, Fall, 1958; and Minor White, “The Craftsmanship of Feeling,” Infinity,
IX, 2 (February, 1960)

“With the Essence Image, the photographer tries to work from the intuitive or sensed reality
of the subject. The attitude of the photographer is to find the wonder and revelation of a
subject through the direct experience of the thing for what it is.”

Minor White. “Conscious Photography” (Unpublished Treatise, Arlington,

Massachusetts, October, 1968).

“To reach essence, the photographer cannot work as the painter does.
The photographer cannot pile up characteristics until an essence is synthesized. He must
wait until a face, gesture, or place goes ‘transparent’ and thereby reveals the essence
underneath. This exact instant, when the subject bares its inner core is a transitory and
fleeting moment. It is never repeated exactly. The expressive function of the camera is to
make photographs that reveal the essence of the subject along with the facts.”

Minor White. “Photography is an Art,” Design XLIX, 4 (December, 1947).

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 Selected Bibliography
Published Works By Minor White, Listed Chronologically

1943 “When is Photography Creative?” American Photography,

January 1943, Pp. 16-17; rpt. In exposure, Oct. 1976, Pp. 7-12.

1948 “What is Photography?” Photo Notes, Spring, 1948, Pp.

16-19; rpt. In exposure, 1976, Pp. 7-12.

1952 “The Camera Mind and Eye.” Magazine of Art, Jan. 1952,
Pp. 16-19; rpt. In Photographers on Photography,
Nathan Lyons, ed., Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1966, Pp, 163-168.

“Exploratory Camera: A Rationale for the Miniature

Camera.” Aperture, 1, No. 1 (1952), 5-16.

1953 “Criticism.” Aperture, 2, No. 2 (1953), 27-33.

1956 Exposure with the Zone System. New York: Morgan and
Morgan, 1956.

1957 “Some Methods for Experiencing Photographs.” Aperture,

5, No. 4 (1957), 156-171. (Written with Walter Chappell.)

1961 Zone System Manual. New York: Morgan and Morgan, Inc., 1961.
Revised and enlarged edition of Exposure with the Zone System, 1956.

1962 “Varieties of Responses in Photographs,” Aperture, 10,

No. 3 (1962), 116-128.
1963 “Equivalence: The Perennial Trend.” PSA Journal, July
1963, Pp. 17-21; rpt. In Photographers on Photography,
Nathan Lyons, ed. Rochester: The George Eastman House, 1963.
Pp. 96-101.

1964 “Pictorial Photography,” The Encyclopedia of Photography. New York:

Greystone Press, 1964. Pp. 1869-1880.

1967 Zone System Manual. Hastings-on-Hudson: Morgan and Morgan, Inc.,

1965. Third edition.

1968 “Extended Perception Through Photography and Suggestion.”

Ways of Growth, Herbert Otto and John Mann, eds. New York:
Grossman Publishers, 1968. Pp. 34-48.

1969 Mirrors Messages Manifestations. New York: Aperture, Inc., 1969.

80
1956 “Fundamentals of Style in Photography and the Elements
of Reading Photographs.” Pp. 1-271. Private Collection.

1957 “The Way of Photography: The 10,000 Exercises.”

Pp. 1-75. Minor White Papers. The Research Center
at the Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York.

1962 “Canons of Camerawork.” Pp. 1-259. Private Collection.

1971 “Consciousness in Photography: The Expressive Photographer.” Private Collection.

1976 “A Guidebook to Seeing Photographically: Induction of Seeing States for Expanded

Visual Perception from Flat to Spiral.” Pp. 1- c. 100. Private Collection.

1976 “The Visualization Manual.” Pp. 1-c. 150. Private Collection.

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 APPENDIX
Selected Minor White Photographs

Easter Sunday
Stony Brook State Park
New York, 1963
The Three Thirds, 1957
Sun, Rock, Surf, 1948
Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1973
 Pultneyville, New York, 1957
From The Sequence “The Sound of One Hand Clapping.”
 Peeling Paint
Rochester, New York, 1959
Tom Murphy, San Francisco, 1947
Beginnings, 1962
Warehouse Area, San Francisco, 1949
Movement Studies Number 56
San Francisco, 1949
 Hangs Alley, Rochester, 1960
From Sequence 16: Steely the Barb of Infinity
Devil's Slide, San Mateo County, California, 1948
Ivy, Portland Oregon, 1964
Point Lobos State Park, California, 1950
No. 4 from Fourth Sequence
Pavilion, New York, 1957
 San Francisco, 1949
From The Sequence Intimations Of Disaster
Henry Mountains, Utah, 1966
Windowsill Daydreaming, Rochester, New York 1958
 Sand Blaster
Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, 1949
Moencopi Strata, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah, 1962
Ritual Branch, Rochester, New York, 1958