Minor White: The Eye That Shapes is an investigative, retrospective view of Minor White. In exploring the theme that White termed "camera as a way of life," and in elaborating on the richness and diversity of his photographic endeavor, the exhibition and publication present, thirteen years after his death, an affectionate and affirmative view of the man and the artist. An effort has been made to reveal in depth the inner workings of his existence and the features of his photography that are perhaps indistinct for many people, including those familiar with Mirrors Messages Manifestations, a complicated sequence of words and images that was White's own presentation of his life and, as has been said, was an autobiography with its own special truth.
Drawn from the Minor White Archive at Princeton University, Minor White: The Eye That Shapes consists of 185 photographs that demonstrate the full range of White's work from 1938 to 1976. Many of the works, including ten rare color photographs, have never been exhibited, and only one quarter of them have been published previously. The exhibition was organized by Peter C. Bunnell, McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University, and Faculty Curator of Photography at The Art Museum.
Minor White: The Eye That Shapes was on view at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (April 27–June 18, 1989); Portland Art Museum, Oregon (September 19–November 12, 1989); The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (January 20–March 25, 1990); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (June 22–August 19, 1990); International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York (September 21–November 25, 1990); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (January 11–March 17, 1991); and The Art Museum, Princeton University (April 20–June 15, 1991).
