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# Ways of Photographic Seeing: Preparation
- URL: https://www.grainpress.com/ways-of-photographic-seeing-preparation/
- Published: 2026-09-05T15:22:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-05T15:22:38.000Z
- Description: In 1950, at the California School of Fine Arts, Minor White proposed an innovative photography curriculum that was never fully realized. Seventy-six years later, Grainpress revisits the outline to ask what it can still teach photographers today.
- Author: David Comdico
- Tags: CULTURE, Ways of Seeing, #fmt-guide, #series-issue-01, #issue-slot-04, #home-feature-secondary

In 2006 *The Moment of Seeing: Minor White at the California School of Fine Arts* by Stephanie Comer and Deborah Klochko was published. It traces the development of the photography department at CSFA and includes documentation from the Minor White archive.

A thumbnail sketch of CSFA's inception is as follows. In May 1944, Ansel Adams delivered a prominent series of photography lectures in New York at the Photography Center. At the urging of CSFA president Eldridge Spencer, Adams later developed plans for a permanent photography program, which opened in 1946\. That same year he invited Minor White to join the faculty. By 1947 White had become the department’s primary teacher after Adams stepped away from active involvement in the program.

The book includes the course outline White submitted in 1950 for the three-year curriculum but which was never implemented as Douglas MacAgy, the director of CSFA, resigned at the same time. In this series we will use this outline as well as various insights from White's writings on photography to reconstruct a course that never really existed, and use it as a springboard to investigate critical aspects of photography.

What strikes one after reading the book is just how well-rounded and insightful White's approach was. In photography, it is more often the practitioners who have produced the most insightful and illuminating writing about it. This may be because, as a craft, photography is best suited to transmit its knowledge through the traditional apprentice system rather than academic training. This will act as one of the foundational assumptions of what follows in this series.

According to MacAgy, "The day of the eccentric lone wolf in art -- the Bohemian living on air -- is over." MacAgy was a complex person, a proponent of the avant-garde but also professionally and financially circumspect. He predicted that institutions like CSFA could prosper as a result of the post-war boom provided to institutions in the form of the GI Bill, and was cognizant that those funds would depend on demonstrating real-world benefits to its students. He also saw that the post-war boom provided an opportunity for artistic expression. Increased demand would allow leeway for artistic freedom and an environment in which it could thrive, but this would last for only a brief period. In a strange irony, 76 years later White's attempt to join technical mastery, ways of seeing, criticism, communication, professional practice and expressive development into a single course of study now seems remarkably contemporary.

## Aim of this series

*The Moment of Seeing* begins by recounting the story of Alan Arbus "who had been 'doing fashion pictures' with his wife Diane" and wrote to White that he was creatively blocked and thought his program might help him. Photographers who may be feeling similar frustration may find this series and White's teaching useful. During the application process for the program CSFA would ask the applicants what music they liked best, whether they wanted to be a wealthy studio photographer or a scrappy photojournalist, their opinion on the present-day Salon. None of these are requirements for what follows. Grainpress has articles that will cover the basics of photography, but this series will expect some level of familiarity with the process.

We begin with a humble start and will review White’s 1950 proposed curriculum outline which opens with nine aims, which we are going to review, elaborate on, and use as preparation for the rest of the series. We will dive into each of these topics directly and indirectly in this series, but for now we will review them at a high level. They are:

1. Technical craftsmanship.
2. A craftsmanship of feeling.
3. A craftsmanship of communication.
4. To present the scope of photography.
5. The scientific aspect of the medium.
6. Aesthetic of camera work.
7. Love of the medium through mastery of it.
8. The distinction between “professionalism” and “creative” work.
9. To help and/or encourage students to make art of and/or in spite of their psychological conflicts.

## Craft

White’s outline begins with the discipline of craft, "Technical craftsmanship," and is then followed by the crafts of feeling and communication. Technical craft seems like a logical place to start but White places feeling right after it and only then follows with communication. The order is Technique, informed by feeling (which is a craft itself), which is then communicated.

The foundation of photographic mastery begins with technical craft. White breaks this down as:

#### 1\. Technical craftsmanship includes

A. Negative and print production, print presentation B. Five techniques

1. **View Camera.**
2. **Natural light.**
3. **Artificial light.**
4. **Miniature Camera.**
5. **Color Transparencies.**

There are a few notions implicit in this outline: that black-and-white materials will be used up until the color section, that the student will first learn the essentials of creating negatives with a view camera and only later move to the "miniature" camera, and that the student will learn to harness natural light before learning how to control artificial light.

"Craftsmanship of feeling" is a strange arrangement of words. We often think of feeling as something opposed to or outside of craft. But this, as I have come to learn about White, is very characteristic of him, and that is his obstinate belief that anything could be taught (and thereby learned) even acquiring the ability to become creatively receptive.

Color transparencies, at this time, was the way the department introduced instruction on commercial photography. Funds for a full color darkroom and color printing always seems to have been underfunded, but these historical details are outside the scope of our current interest.

#### 2\. Craftsmanship of Feeling includes

A. Five approaches to subject matter

1. **Mechanical recording.**
2. **Objective Interpretation.**
3. **Impressionistic.**
4. **“Equivalent.”**
5. **Subjective or “Free Photographing.”**

B. Reaching a “creative” state of mind thru positive action is considered preferable to waiting for “inspiration.”

What White is describing here is how one approaches subject matter. This list will later transform slightly as his later teaching begins to focus on reading photographs, a topic which we will explore later. In the sequence, we have learned how to create a negative and have technical control of a camera. We now have the problem of what to photograph and how.

White's list is a sequence that builds as the student becomes more sophisticated and skilled, but it is not a qualitative hierarchy.

Mechanical recording is when we place the camera and allow it to see with its unique objectivity.

Objective Interpretation begins to suggest some intervention (interpretation) but still remain true to the thing photograph and strive for objectivity.

Impressionistic is when we start to focus on our response to something rather than its essence and create a picture that represents this feeling.

Equivalent is a term and concept White borrowed from Alfred Stieglitz and it remained a strong interest throughout White's life, and his approach to it changed over time. But for now we can think of the equivalent in Stieglitz's terms: the equivalent represents a state of mind or idea that is not obviously present in the subject.

Subjective as a category was later dropped from White's approach to reading photographs, which was a natural result of the focus moving from creating to viewing. However, the concept says that through a loose, free-association approach to the subject the photographer could discover hidden intentions or feelings (White calls them "psychological signposts") that they were unaware of having.

Lastly, White emphasis that opening ourselves up and feeling a sense of artistic flow is something one can develop with practice and does not require inspiration. As this is only an outline, it does not include any instruction on how precisely to do this but the archive suggests that this is where White's interest in Zen and the I Ching became useful tools but hardly exhaust potential sources.

## Communication

In *Art as Experience*, John Dewey compared artistic expression to how the wine press expressed the grape to create wine. He contrasted this to a baby's cry which could be interpreted by the parent but was not in itself an expression. Correspondingly, art, if it wished to be expressive, could not simply rely on the outpouring of emotion to serve as expression and rely for it to be interpreted as intended.

#### 3\. Craftsmanship of Communication Is Implemented by

A. Analysis of two and three dimensional design for its own sake, and for its effect on spectator.

B. Analysis of style.

C. Analysis of subject matter and its effect on audience.

D. Criticism.

E. Symbolism. (The current symbolism of psychology is touched on. The dual dangers of symbolism are pointed out—too little and too much.)

White's entire curriculum places great emphasis on mastery of the medium, not in order to make masterworks or certain kinds of pictures, but to make expression possible. The scientific aspects of photography—optics, filters, chemistry—were learned in depth and the scope of photography (its various branches) was also explored and understood: Scientific, Commercial, Photojournalism, Hobby, Experimental, Portraiture, Propaganda (e.g. product photography), expressive, creative photography. These were essentials that provided a foundation which would allow feeling and the individual spirit to be free.

![Inside pages of book](https://www.grainpress.com/content/images/2026/09/ways-seeing2.jpg)

## The scope of photography

Although White is associated with abstract photography and spiritual investigations, and these are indeed important to his pedagogy and philosophy, he seemed to also have taken seriously Spencer's command that an artist should "not live on air." He also took seriously the amateur's interest in photography, that it could be meaningful as a "hobby." His inclusion here is very broad.

#### 4\. The scope of photography is presented under the following headings

A. **Scientific.**

B. **“Commercial.”**

C. **Photojournalism.**

D. **Hobby.**

E. **“Experimental.”**

F. **Portraiture.**

G. **Propaganda.**

H. **“Expressive” photography.**

I. **“Creative” photography.**

Creative photography was a term that White used to describe his personal approach to photography and was something he emphasized in his teaching. "Planned work based on the discoveries of self and self revelation with communication purposefully aimed at." It is what compelled Alan Arbus to write to him when he felt artistically hemmed in by his fashion work with Condé Nast. White called expressive and creative photography "the life blood of the medium" and it will be treated as such too in this series.

#### 5\. The scientific aspect of the medium is introduced to the student thru the use of text books and lectures on theory. It includes

A. Optic B. Sensitometry C. Nature of Light Sources D. Theory of Filters E. Chemistry of process.

The interesting thing to note here is how far down the list these topics are placed and are not automatically included in step one. They are still critical since mastery is the goal, not primary. Often today our approach is either to over-emphasize such topics or ignore them completely.

#### Learning from your pictures

A significant part of White's pedagogy included looking at photographs and reading them. He developed sophisticated analytical tools that he used with students learning how to read photographs, especially their own.

#### 6\. The aesthetic of camera is developed thru taking pictures and analysis of prints in terms of the characteristic use of the medium and the integrity of the artist

One of the unfortunate limitations you face when studying White is that a lot of the material that he used in his teaching still remains unpublished, including his manuscript *Space, Analysis, Recognition: A Style Analysis for Photographers*. White was always developing his ideas and after 1950 his "Craftsmanship of Feeling" was transformed into slightly different categories that he used in his photo analysis. They were:

- **Informational**
- **Documentary**
- **Pictorial**
- **Equivalent**

We will delve into this in later installments but for now the takeaway is that you learn best by analyzing pictures, those you admire and your own.

## The well-rounded photographer

The final three sections of the outline refer to the student's growth from an aspirant into a professional and set certain expectations and standards for them.

#### 7\. The development of a love of medium and a responsibility for one’s own pictures is an overall goal

#### 8\. The development of the “professional” attitude is aided by what is called, in the department, the project plan

#### 9\. To help and/or encourage students to make art of and/or in spite of their psychological conflicts.

White was obviously keen on helping students grow as individuals but he also wanted to prepare them for work as a professional if that was the path they chose to explore. He taught his students how to think about and solve a client’s problems, work out costs, and understand the economic and logistical demands of being a working photographer and generally to bring a professional attitude to their work, even as an artist. The "Project Plan" is probably interesting details worth exploring but it may or may not be extant.

The last point is perhaps a relic of its era and its near-obsessive focus on psychoanalysis but can be treated much more pragmatically, as self-awareness and how it can regulate artistic output and provide insights into one's perhaps veiled motivations. That this repeats aspects of entry 2 may indicate how important it was to White.

## Walk around and discover

In the exercise that follows and in all future installments we will not pretend that we are speaking with the authority or outlook of Minor White and in some particulars we may diverge with his practice or suggestion. Some of this may be unintentional but when intentional we will attempt to call that out. But for the bulk, think of what follows as inspired by White's writing and example.

With each installment in this series we will attempt to include a practical insight or experiment and this first installment will be broad and inspired by a trip White made with his students to visit Edward Weston at Point Lobos in California. Weston had the students keep their camera gear in their cars and first asked them to look around before they decided on a subject to photograph.

White’s 1950 outline lists five techniques. The second is natural light, and under it White wrote that “selective seeing (or ‘found’ pictures) is considered characteristic of camera work,” and that this technique combined with the view camera “constitutes most of first year work.”

What we will take away from this is twofold: one, the view camera as a learning tool and two, selective seeing.

There is a lot to be said about learning photography with a view camera. The ground glass and its upside-down image demand close attention and reward it. The presentation of an upside-down subject allows you to see the form more clearly. The tripod enforces deliberation. One sheet at a time gives you the opportunity to evaluate exposure, where you place it and allow the highlights to fall.

If you have a view camera, take it out and expose a few sheets with it while contemplating what we covered here. If you don't have a view camera use what you have but use it as if it were one. Follow the view camera procedure and divide each step, placement, framing, exposure so that each one is intentional. Aim for precision and studied control.

The other insight is about selective seeing, observing how an object in natural light appeals to you. Imagine that Edward Weston asked you to leave your camera in the car and first observe the location and find what interests you. Observe the play of light. Only after you find something that evokes a strong feeling should you take the picture.

These two poles work together: in one you observe and find the right point of view and in the other execute the picture in a deliberate way. Take your time and enjoy the process.