72 North Union. A famous address, in Rochester, New York. A famous address in the world of photography. This was the home of Minor White in the years he lived in Rochester and taught at RIT. I was a student of Minor's in the school years 61-62 and 63-64. In addition, I did my senior thesis on Minor White and photographed him as an RIT teacher, publisher of Aperture magazine, writer, and at photographic workshops he taught in Boston and at St. Lawrence University. I photographed Minor at his home for my entire senior year and was very familiar with 72 North Union. Minor left here for MIT and Boston in 1965. While in Rochester last week, I went on a pilgrimage to visit the old RIT campus (half of which has been dynamited) and then to see if 72 North Union still exists. It does - it is the peaked roof of the building to the right, behind the facade of the Word of the Cross church that has been added to the front, joining two buildings. So I started photographing, and found this wonderful foreground object - the manhole cover, with the curving strips of road tar around it! The perfect foreground for a photograph in the manner of Minor White!
2 comments:
I found this post today, I too photographed this address before leaving Rochester.... pretty funny/interesting....
http://www.iliketotellstories.com/2008/03/72-north-union-st.html
Thanks so much for this photograph and this memoir. I am a London-based admirer of Minor White's visionary work (and can so envy you your encounter with Minor himself). You can read how he has inspired me here: http://contemphoto.blogspot.co.uk/view/classic
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