Figure 1.--This is the Whuite family at theur father's first school in Maine. Why the family is fessed in sailor outdfuits we do not know. Only the younger boy is not wearing a sailor suit. He is wearing a tunic suit with bloomer jknickers--a popular outfit at the time for boys. he photgraph was taken by F. Holland Day, a friend and another important photographer.

Clarence Hudson White was an importat self-taught American photographer who open a school and was and a founding member of the Photo-Secession movement. He was raised in small Ohio towns. He bvecanme intersred in photigraphy after after visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893) he seriously pursued photography. A aesult of the quality of his photiography, he impressed the photograohic communiy with images thatv were seen tio capture the spirit of America in the early-20th century. He became associated with Alfred Stieglitz. Both worked to estabish photography as an art form. White noved his family moved to New York City o be closer to Stieglitz and the photographers associated with him. White becane interested in teaching photograophy. He opened an informal school in Maine (1910). The family portrait taken by F. Holland Day was taken at the school in Maine. We are not sure abiout the sailor outfits for most of the family. A reader writes, "This is an interesting photograph. I know that often parents wanted siblings to dress alike, but not the parents as well for photos. And Maine (around the coast) was very tied to sailing and sailor outfits would make sense. Even the little boy wearing the white tunic outfit may have a sailor collar to it. It seems to me the formal portrait was the children in sailor outfits with the youngest boy." White opened another more formal photographic school in New York, the first effort to teach photography as an art form. His teaching methods were unorthodox, but attracted many students who would make important contributions to American photography. As a result of his teaching, his own work declined. He was also deeply disturbed by World War I because of his Socialist views. Pacifism was an imoprtant tennant of Socialism. He died in Mexico where he took some of his students in an effort to resume his own photographic work.

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Created: 5:43 AM 10/6/2022
Last updated: 6:11 PM 10/6/2022