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Of the f64 zone system photographers it is Minor White's works to which I have been and still am most attracted. White saw in photography a way to give life a new vitalism. Minor White, along with Ansel Adams, are both vitalist but where Ansel Adams saw in landscapes a preservation of life, Minor White takes a different haptic approach. In Gilles Deleuze's vitalist aesthetic art photography is a miracle which is life. Anyway, I have been reading a paper on Minor White and have cut and paste some excerpts below. Thought others may find this of interest. Here, haptic cannot find itself limited to a purely tacile sense of touch but is the flesh of fingers, hands, skin, ears, a tasteful mouth, nose and eyes, a visual which is abstraction, which is also to say imagination in the face of representation. Quoted from: Mirror of Pathos (Minor White, American Photographer) Yujiro Otsuki White studied poetry before getting involved with photography. This must be why his photographs are meant to be read and felt, rather than just being viewed. It seems that his love of poetry never died even after changing his medium, since his visions seem to share the same language as poetry. [...] His knowledge and correspondence of poetry and photography gave his prints a visual and mystical mood and harmony. White described, "In becoming a photographer I am only changing mediums. The essential core of both verse and photography is both poetry, and I have felt the taste of poetry,"(Bunnelle 16) While White's images show that he was comfortable using his new medium, he still leaves his psychological and metaphoric marks; his fears, desires, and tensions are present in his photographs. [Later] The image of early morning sunlight pouring through a window was probably captured with a sharp lens, and his new 4 x 5 Sinar view camera that he purchased in the same year (Bunnelle 9). This is also the moment of the sublime with a celebration of light! [Later] One must observe all the elements in the image as shapes of abstraction. Now his ordinary objects have transformed to something extraordinary. [Later] He added atmosphere and breathing space in his image. He opened possibilities of pure straight photography with his poetic style. Can you feel the air? Can you hear the sound of silence from this photograph? This breathing space and sublime light remind me of the paintings by color field painter, Mark Rothko. Although "Windowsill Daydreaming" is a black and white image, and not a color photograph, it still shares the same kind of mood and emotional reaction as if I were experiencing Rothko's infinite light. White's photograph also had a soft-feathered edge of light and shadows in the reflected light on the wall, which evokes "an out of body experience" and "ideal spiritual space". Dorothy Norman writes, "What may be the deepest meanings of the images shown are not always easily recognizable at first glance. They emerge with increasing clarity only as we experience them. They take on a living reality to the degree that we are able to penetrate the mask that hides us from ourselves." (Dorothy Norman, quoted in Minor White, A Living Remembrance. New York: Aperture, 1984) His images are so open and naked that there are hundreds of thousands of interpretations, which reflect our inner pathos and eros. This is the private side of my face I did not want to show. Now we are the ones who have exposed our punctum to Minor White's photographs. Our public faces that everyone knows are gone. Our masks are not covering our faces anymore. Who is naked now? Minor White, or us? I believe that approaching White's visions are similar to lovemaking with the photographer. By reading his photographs deeper and deeper, we start taking our clothes off until our emotions are completely naked. [From Postscript] Facing the original prints so closely offered me a very different experience from looking at reproductions in the photography books. I was able to have physical reactions with very intimate and emotional moments as if I were communicating with the soul of Minor White. It is stunning how much "aura" original prints can offer.