TEN PHOTOGRAPHERS, 1946–54 THE LEGACY OF MINOR WHITE California School of Fine Arts The Exhibition Perceptions TEN PHOTOGRAPHERS,1946–54 THE LEGACY OF MINOR WHITE California School of Fine Arts The Exhibition Perceptions Essay by Deborah Klochko 1. Front cover: photograph by Nata Piaskowski 2. Inside front cover: Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc. Tel: 415-626-2677 photograph by Bob Hollingsworth 3. Title page: Susan Herzig Post Office Box 40447 Fax: 415-552-4150 photograph by Nata Piaskowski Paul Hertzmann San Francisco, CA 94140 E–mail:
[email protected] Press release issued by George Eastman House announcing the Perceptions Exhibition. INTRODUCTION With the opening of the exhibition Perceptions at the San Francisco Museum of Art1 on August 10, 1954, a decade of photography in San Francisco and the Bay Area was recognized and celebrated. Forty-six photographers exhibited in Perceptions. Among them were Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Edward Weston, and Minor White. Between 1946 and 1954, these highly influential photographers had given guidance and inspiration to the students of the new fine art photography program at the California School of Fine Arts (renamed the San Francisco Art Institute in 1961). “Distinguished students”2 of these renowned photographers exhibited their photographs in Perceptions as well. Ten of those students are the subject of this catalogue. John Bertolino Nata Piaskowski Zoe [Lowenthal] Brown F. W. Quandt, Jr. Benjamen Chinn Donald Ross Bob Hollingsworth Charles Wong Gene Petersen Harold Zegart A half-century after the exhibition is not too soon to rediscover these photographers. Today their photographs are as visually and psychologically penetrating, as fresh, vibrant, intelligent and witty as they were fifty years ago.