Stephen White, curator, collector, and author opened one of the first photographic galleries in 1975, in Los Angeles. White has consistently exhibited the works of renowned photographers worldwide and is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of photography and has a lasting legacy on the art. He was the founding president of the International Association of Photography Art Dealers. One of his collections of some 30,000 photographs was sold to Japan’s Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. His vast photographic collections have been in over twenty museum exhibitions inclusive of: The Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam, Paris Palais de Tokyo and Hotel Sully, the Glypotek, Copenhagen, the Kunstverein Museum, Frankfurt. In America; The New Orleans Museum, The George Eastman House, The Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, The Asia Society, New York, The Akron Art Museum, The Skirballl Cultural Center, Los Angeles, The Autry Museum and the California Museum of Photography.
His current book in production, is titled: Creating the Photographic Market: The Inside Story. This first-person story is bound to be an important contribution to understanding the photographic marketplace and collecting.
Patricia Lanza : What is and has been your approach to collecting photography?
Stephen White : I have, by nature, an iconoclastic personality. I always seek my own path and that is true with photography. Initially, I built a collection of interesting and frequently offbeat images.
This was recognized early when during a visit in 1978, Bruce Bernard, the noted English editor, chose thirteen of my images to include in his groundbreaking book, Photodiscovery.
In the gallery I enjoyed doing theme-based shows, as they offered an opportunity to mix a complex formula of images, some well-known, others not known at all. I carried this concept over to my personal collecting, selecting works for my collection on the basis of the way an image spoke to me rather than the name of the artist. In fact, many of the photographs in the present and past collections have no maker name attached to them.
Lanza : How has the photographic market changed overtime (historically)?
White : The photographic market has gone through phases. When I started in 1975, there was only a very small market with low prices. Eventually through the efforts of leading dealers along with a growing base of collectors, expanding interest in museums willing to show photography, articles In newspapers and art magazines on the subject, photography began to take a firm foothold in the art marketplace. Around the turn of the millennium, a shift occurred and large prints mostly in color, by contemporary photographers began to replace the traditional form of collecting. Painting galleries and those selling works on paper began to take photography seriously. Prices rose, but photography always looked inexpensive beside contemporary art attracting a group of younger collectors.
More recently a newer phase is discovering lesser-known works by Black artists, Native-Americans and other indigenous people. Interest has recently been expressed in climate change work, technical aspects of environmental observation (as opposed to the more traditional photographs of nature) and uses of technology. Like any good art form, photography is always seeking new forms of expression. There is no doubt that AI will have an enormous impact on the field.
Lanza : Discuss one of your more interesting and valuable “finds” in photographic collecting?
White : To find offbeat work, one has to look in odd places. I would often visit Photographica shows that offered a variety of material in photography. In 2017, the Photographica show in Glendale was a popular place to visit. At one table I found a collection of an interesting photographer named Kali Archibald. They were color and black and white photographs many double exposures and most made in the 1960s. I bought all the dealer had, about 55, and as an unknown photographer, the price proved to be reasonable. I took them home, put them away with my collection and thought no more about them.
When I read that a well know New York gallery, Staley-Wise was exhibiting a collection of the works of Kali Archibald in 2021, the name rang a bell. A bit of inquiry informed me that the vintage prints somewhat larger than mine, were being sold between $10000-15000 each. I have since done an exhibition at a gallery in Los Angeles and purchased a four-volume set of books on Kali’s work.
Lanza : What are your recommendations on how to be a young collector today?
White : For young collectors. Most younger people like contemporary work because it is more current and hipper. But I would suggest looking at older 20th century material. Currently there is a dip in that market and well-known photographers are selling far below what they were selling for just a few years ago. This is a great time to build an interesting collection of vintage work in an area that attracts your fascination.
Lanza : Discuss your current book in progress?
White : I have just finished a book about my own gallery experiences. I started with $4000 in 1975 and through luck and hard work built a business and a large personal collection which I sold to a Japanese museum in 1990. Then I started a new collection. Opening a gallery was the only way I had to collect.
The book, Collecting Photography; The Inside Story, covers my experiences from the struggle of an underfinanced gallery to a successful gallery that had its entire collection (along with my personal collection) purchased by a Japanese Museum in 1990. The story offers an inside look at a neglected area of the art world that went from being an orphan child to a major force in the art world over a period of some twenty-five years, an unheard-of arc. I was lucky enough to have been part of the foundation and the stories of my adventures give insights into how an art field develops from nothing by a group of hard-working people; photography dealers, collectors, museum curators, auction houses, writers, critics and photographers, all working together to transform an art form into a widely accepted part of the art world.
Text and Interview by Patricia Lanza
