Minor White

the photographer's '135 Jackson, San Francisco 11, Calif.' studio stamp and the number '#3' in pencil on the reverse, a typed caption affixed to the reverse, framed, 1948

Swann Galleries, 13 December 2007, Sale 2132, Lot 281

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 2008

This photograph is on light-weight glossy paper and is in generally very good condition. There are several small sharp creases primarily near the upper and right edges of the image, which do not appear to break the emulsion. In raking light, a 6-and-1/2-inch thin mark, possibly a linear transfer of adhesive, is visible near the lower edge of the image. The typed printing information caption reads: 'Photographs 3 and 4, To be able to place tones where I wanted them in the final print is always exciting. It gives one a sense of assurance and power that nothing else in the technical aspects of photography can.' When examined under ultraviolet light, this print appears to fluoresce ever-so-faintly in the margins.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The model for this photograph was Tom Murphy, with whom Minor White worked extensively in the late 1940s, while teaching at San Francisco’s California School of Fine Arts.  Murphy, a young student there, was one of the key models in White’s photographic exploration of the male nude form.   One of White’s many photographs of Murphy appears on the dust jacket of Peter Bunnell’s 1989 volume, Minor White: The Eye That Shapes. 

In the photograph offered here, White has cropped the image to show only Murphy's right foot.  According to Peter Bunnell, a print of the full negative appears in a Minor White sequence, the combination of photographs and lyrical text that was so central to White’s philosophy and practice of photography.   Bunnell has identified the full-negative image as plate 9 in The Temptation of St. Anthony is Mirrors, from 1948.  It is believed that the Minor White Archive at Princeton University holds the only extant copy of this sequence in its complete form.

The print offered here was originally part of a group of Minor White photographs accompanied by his manuscript and typed writings, suggesting that it was intended as an illustration for one of the photographer’s many articles or lectures.