72 North Union Street, Rochester (Kitchen)

1956
(American, 1908–1976)
Image: 23.8 x 17.7 cm (9 3/8 x 6 15/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
Reproduction courtesy The Minor White Archive, Princeton University. Copyright © 1982 by The Trustees of Princeton University. All rights reserved.
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

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Description

As a photographer, educator, writer, curator, and editor of Aperture magazine, Minor White was one of the most influential forces in 20th-century photography. Early in his career, he championed a photographic style that emphasized personal feeling, ambiguity, and abstraction. While working in Rochester, New York, from 1953 to 1964, White lived in an apartment located above a store at 72 North Union Street (his darkroom was in the building's basement). The apartment had a spare, austere atmosphere that is reflected in this view of the kitchen, with the Japanese paper lantern and simple table setting. Each element in this carefully arranged composition has formal as well as metaphysical significance, such as order, routine, necessity, and the natural flow of life.
72 North Union Street, Rochester (Kitchen)

72 North Union Street, Rochester (Kitchen)

1956

Minor White

(American, 1908–1976)
America, 20th century

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