The Pictorial Photographers of America was founded in January 1916  by a group including Clarence White, Karl Struss, and Edward Dickson. The story of its early years and development under the guiding influence of Clarence White follows. In 1906, a 35 year-old bookkeeper from Newark, Ohio, whose hobby was photography, moved to New York City. He wanted to be a part of the photo-secessionist movement and become involved with the more prominent photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, who had begun the Photo-Secession group in 1902. He also felt that New York offered a broader cultural environment in which to develop his aesthetic photographic philosophy. That man was Clarence H. White. He located his family in Morningside Heights, a neighborhood that was becoming a cultural resource with the presence of Columbia University, Barnard College, City College, Union Theological Seminary, and the soon-to-be-completed Juilliard School of Music. He taught art photography at Columbia University from 1907–25, where Margaret Bourke-White was one of his students. In 1907 he established  his studio at 5 West 31st Street in the heart of the photography district, and in 1908 he began a teaching assignment at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science. In 1910 he bought property on Georgetown Island, Maine, and opened a summer school named the Seguinland School of Photography. The school was subsequently moved to East Canaan, Connecticut, in 1916, and within  another year it was relocated to Canaan.

In 1914 he opened the school in Manhattan and called it The Clarence H. White School of Photography. It was initially located  at 230 East 11th Street, but in 1917 was moved to larger space at the Washington Irving House located at 12 East 17th Street. The school, which was open from 1914 to 1942, was the only school in the United States devoted solely to instruction in art photography. White was a devoted, sincere teacher who instilled and nurtured an artistic sense of photography in his students.

He felt that design was a strong element of photography and always had another instructor on hand to teach principles of design. Among noteworthy alumni of the school are Ira Martin, Margaret Watkins, Wynn Richards, Anton Bruehl, and Dorothea Lange.

During White’s life, “pictorial photography” meant “art photography” or “artistic photography.” White felt that pictorial  photography was photography with “construction and expression.” In January 1916, along with colleagues Karl Struss and Edward Dickinson, White founded The Pictorial Photographers of America. It was to be a national organization promoting “pictorial photography,” i.e., use of artistic expression to change the commercial, mechanized aspect of photography. There are multiple accounts of its founding. Some say that the summer of 1916 is the correct date. Physician Dr. D. J. Ruzicka,  a member of the first executive committee, claimed it was discussed in his home. The idea of this organization and its purpose was discussed on many occasions. It held its first regular monthly meeting in February 1917.  Meetings were held in the Studio Building of the National Arts Club at 119 East 19th Street. The PPA was introduced to the public in a 1917-1918 traveling exhibition. In October 1916, PPA’s  first exhibition was sponsored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the National Arts Club. The AIGA served as a model for PPA in its desire to change public taste in advancing the art of photography. Both organizations held regular meetings and exhibitions at the National Arts Club. Although PPA refrained from the exclusivity of the Photo-Secession, it did not enroll the nation’s local camera clubs. It saw itself as the rightful heir of the Photo-Secession, but with a difference —it did not adopt Stieglitz’s political convictions but rather used pictorial photography as a medium for art education. The PPA’s first objective was to have two exhibits which were circulated among sixteen art museums, libraries, and art associations throughout the East and the Midwest.

In 1917 the PPA released its first annual report which replaced Photographic Art as the White group report. In a period of five years Clarence White and his associates had developed an institutional identity. White was president of PPA from 1917 to 1921. He stepped down from the presidency because he believed that the organization would benefit by a change. During his lifetime the annual meeting of PPA was held with the White School summer session in Connecticut. In the early 1920s, White’s organization reached maturity. His school moved to still larger facilities at 460 West 144th Street, and the Art Center—which opened in October 1921 at 65-67 East 56th Street—became home of the PPA. Both these organizations offered new photographers technical training, art education, and career opportunities. PPA’s members were active in contributing fifty of the eighty-three exhibitors to the first exhibition at the Art Center.

As the White School developed, so did the Arts Center. The center became the home of several art organizations including the PPA. The center advanced the industrial, craft, and graphic arts movement in New York. The three most active member organizations were the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), the ADC (Art Directors Club), and the PPA. White was president of the center until 1922 during which time PPA was very active, holding monthly one-person exhibitions, lectures, and competitions. Starting in 1920 it published a number of annuals with essays and high quality prints.

The PPA discontinued its traveling exhibitions, replacing them in 1923 with an ambitious biennial international salon. Clarence White died in July 1925 in Mexico City of a heart attack. The 1926 PPA annual was dedicated to his memory. Jane White, Clarence’s wife, became head of the school and enthusiastically assumed the role of director even though she was neither a teacher nor a photographer, and she remained committed to the standards set by her late husband. Eventually the school offered new courses, including one in advertising photography.

After White’s death the Art Center remained open and PPA continued to prosper. In addition to its monthly lectures, its exhibitions and competitions, it sponsored its third international salon in 1929 and produced a fifth annual. The high quality of the annual inspired Margaret Bourke-White, Nicholas Haz, Lewis Hine, and Karl Struss, who had left PPA ten years earlier, to rejoin. Struss had, in the meantime, also become interested in cinematography, had developed the Stress soft focus lens, and in 1929 shared with Charles Rosher the first Oscar awarded for cinematography for their work on Murnau’s silent film Sunrise.

The Art Center fell victim to the Depression in 1933 and closed. PPA waned and became more self- absorbed and indistinguishable from the nation’s local camera clubs. In 1937, Clarence, Jr., took over as director of the school, as his mother wished, when she retired and became director emeritus of the school. In 1940, he moved the school to a large, stately townhouse at 32 West 74th Street., where an ambitious program of lectures by the likes of  Edward Steichen, Gjon Mili, and Beaumont Newhall took place. The move proved to be costly and with the start of World War II, the school went bankrupt and closed in 1942.

From 1937 to 1939, Thomas O. Sheckell served as the PPA’s president. He was more conservative than his predecessor, Ira Martin, but was still interested in modern trends in photography. After 1940 the PPA assumed the role of other camera clubs, with no particular interest in the New York art world or commercial photography.

The influence of Clarence H. White was extended through his friends, students, and exhibitions held by the Pictorial Photographers of America. There are many photographers influenced by his philosophy of photography who have not been brought to the forefront. White had a strong impact in inspiring them all.

Stella Simon, a White alumnus and prominent photographer, said, “Anyone who came under his influence never got over it.”

Ref.: Pictorialism into Modernism, The Clarence H. White School of Photography. Bonnie Yochelson and Kathleen Erwin,  New York, Rizzoli International Publications, 1996.

 

                KARL STRUSS

These links take you to a 4-part series of blog articles by John Bailey, ASC,  published in December 2014 by the American Society of Cinematographers:

Part One:  Karl Struss, A Tripod in Two Worlds: Part One – New York

Part Two: Karl Struss, A Tripod in Two Worlds: Part Two – The Early Hollywood Years

Part Three: Karl Struss. A Tripod in Two Worlds: Part Three – Paramount to 3-D

Part Four: Karl Struss. A Tripod in Two Worlds: Part Four – Sunrise