Lenses Minor White used?

[Greg]

Have been spending more and more time going through my books on Minor White's work. A lot has been published about him including a list of his complete library of books, which I have read that more than a few people have duplicated. Am really interested in the equipment that he used. All I have come to find out so far is that he used a 4x5 Sinar Norma. Nothing on what lenses he used. Does anyone out there have any knowledge to what lenses he used? I don't intend on trying to duplicate his lenses, am completely satisfied with the optics I already own. Completely realize that if I were to use the lenses he used, my images would be no better. So this is more of curiosity quest.
thanks

[Mark Sampson]

Some of what I've read about his work suggests that after WWII he used a Sinar (Norma) 4x5 and an early postwar Schneider Symmar 210/6.8 lens. That would be the first-generation Dagor-type Symmar, not the later and more common "convertible" version. Can't provide the documentation for that right now, though.

[Merg Ross]

Most likely you are concerned with large format lenses. However, the majority of White's work was done with small cameras. He used a Speed Graphic (3 1/4 x 4 1/4) before and during the time he taught at the California School of Fine Arts in the mid-40's and early 50's, and prior to that an Argus C3. The majority of his photographs were made with a Zeiss Ikonta B for the street work done while at CSFA and later. He purchased a 4x5 Sinar in the late 50's, followed by a Leica.

[Luis-F-S]

Have been spending more and more time going through my books on Minor White's work. Does anyone out there have any knowledge to what lenses he used?
thanks

I suspect he used whatever he had at his disposal. The lens does not "make" the image, the mind does!

[Mark Sampson]

Luis, exactly right. and just what Mr. White might have said.
And, not quite off-topic; if I was a curator at the GEM or elsewhere, I'd put together a show of the work he did while he lived in my home town (Rochester). I can recognize the location of at least two of his published pictures. Would be interesting to see if there was any significance to the locale.

[Drew Wiley]

It was some minor brand of lens.

[Greg]

All that I have found out so far is that he acquired the following cameras:
1916 Brownie B? 2 1/2 x 4 1/4 with a Meniscus
1938 Argus 35mm 50mm
1940 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Speed Graphic
1957 or 1958 4x5 Sinar Norma
1959 Leica to shoot color
1976 Polaroid SX-70
Just having this list (especially because of the dates) to refer to when going over his images has been very enlightening.

Mark, vague references to the lens he used on his 4x5 Norma match an early postwar Schneider Symmar 210/6.8 lens

Vague reference that he used only one lens on each of his cameras. When he taught at RIT, he could have borrowed any lens he wanted to from the "Cage".

Choosing lenses interesting... When I was learning to use my first 8x10 and the Zone System when I was a student at RIT, my Mentor at the time, Nile Root, advised me to only carry and use one lens which was a 12" f/4.5 Wolllensak Velostigmat. Another facility member, who I informally studied Architectural Photography under, advised me to always carry a minimum of 3 lenses, preferably WA optics. G.E. DeWolfe once told me something like "use the one that projects an image".

[Jac@stafford.net]

It was some minor brand of lens.

Minor White did his best work collaborating with Major Black.

[David Lindquist]

Aperture #80 (1978) titled "Rites and Passages", devoted to Minor White and including a biographical essay by James Baker Hall, has a photograph titled "Minor White with workshop students." There's no date or photographer given. You can clearly see he's using a Sinar Norma but as far as the lens, well its shutter looks more to me like an Ilex or an Alphax than a Compound or Compur and that's about it. For anyone who has this publication, the photo is on page 89. Let us know what you think.

I always liked the quote by Peter Bunnell that James Baker Hall provides regarding the other worldly Minor White and his Sinar, that the Sinar was "...the only material thing he ever really wanted."

David

[Greg]

Aperture #80 (1978) titled "Rites and Passages", devoted to Minor White and including a biographical essay by James Baker Hall, has a photograph titled "Minor White with workshop students." There's no date or photographer given. You can clearly see he's using a Sinar Norma but as far as the lens, well its shutter looks more to me like an Ilex or an Alphax than a Compound or Compur and that's about it.
David

image attached