Professor Neal White, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University in the Photography, Fine Arts Department, passed away after a long illness, on Thursday evening, July 25, 2024, with his wife, Paula, by his side.
Artist, photographer, oil painter, cinematographer, historian, bona fide genius, cartoonist, certified Chinese medical practitioner, acupuncturist, expert marksman and teacher are just a few of the titles rightly assigned to Neal. He was a brilliant person, a person of many accomplishments, yet he considered kindness his most important attribute.
Neal was predeceased by his adored mother, the artist Renee White, and his father, Dr. Sidney White.
He leaves behind his beloved child, Sergiu I. V. White, of Vermont; his brothers, Geoff, Rory and Rush, of California; his lifelong dear friends, Neil Reichline, Dr. Peter Eckman, Tim Haworth and George Berticevich; his wife, Paula Mack, of Vermont; her child, Maxine Darling (Isaac), of Maine; and countless works of art in homes, private collections and museums around the world, along with many works still to be seen.
There are no public services, as we each honor Neal and grieve his passing with our own unique practices.
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2024.
Neal White was truly a unique genius in multiple fields, photography and art being major, yet equally so in areas as unexpected as marksmanship and, of course, his devoted study and practice of Chinese Medicine and Holistically in relation to the powers of Western Medicine, without the tunnel-vision common to the latter, or the to former for that matter. Neal was amazing. Although we suffered extreme estrangement (I am one of his brothers) I never lost my high awe, nor my deep love, for this powerfully brilliant and immensely vulnerable human being. My deepest condolences to all who loved him and to his unique and devoted wife, Paula. For me, the earth is now a different place, without Neal being alive upon its fragile surface. May God heal my heart, and that of the others mourning him, and hold Neal gently.
Neal White began his career in photographic art as an offshoot of film-making. He earned both the BA (Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and MFA in cinematography, film aesthetics and film direction at the celebrated UCLA film department. Beginning as a mere adjunct to his training as a cinematographer, he studied still photography while a graduate student in film (and supporting himself as a correspondent for the New Republic Magazine and a syndicated, award-winning editorial cartoonist (e.g., Columbia Press Association Prize for Editorial Cartoons, 1965). Although his cryptic (and always controversial) films received critical acclaim and numerous international film festival awards (e.g., from the Cannes Film Festival and Monterey Film Festival), he focused increasingly on still photography after his 1970 appointment (at the age of 22) to the full time tenured faculty of the Photography Area of the Department of Art in San Francisco State University.
There he joined fellow Professors Jack Welpott and Don Worth, in a prestigious, pioneering pure photographic art studio program during what is widely considered a golden age of fine arts photography and its now unquestioned place in university education. Prof. White taught at San Francisco State University until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1995. Neal White’s photographs are represented in the permanent collections of many fine arts museums in America and Europe (including the Museum of Modern Art, International Museum of Photography, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum, St. Louis Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Art, Norton Simon Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Musée Francais de la Photographie, Bibliotheque National de Paris, Musée Réattu d’Arles and the Royal Photographic Society) and have been exhibited extensively since the 1970s (including several large touring exhibitions in the Centres Culturelles in Europe, sponsored by the US Department of State, as well as in art museums. Neal White was honored with the Medal of the Arles Festival (France) (other recipients being Brassai, J.H. Lartigue, Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Jack Welpott and Judy Dater) Although a dedicated teacher, he retired due to delicate health after 25 years at San Francisco State University, which had curtailed the production of prints of his prolific output as a photographic artist. However, when Prof. White retired (as the youngest Emeritus Professor in the history of his university) and relocated to Vermont, he began the long overdue retrospective printing from over two hundred thousand of his negatives