Local historical society sells Clarence White photographs

...but why it is doing so is a question still to be answered

Though I have lived next to and under the professional shadow of Clarence H. White for many years, only about a year ago did it strike me that he was appreciated in far away places more than in Newark. That's when I published at the Newark Tea Party a gallery that briefly summarizes his work and his importance to the history of world photography. Here's the link to that gallery. Folks from throughout the world have visited it.

Collectors and researchers contact me, though I never pretended to be informed about any of this. The realization that White and his family are buried within walking distance of my home was my original wake-up call. From there, my web site information grew only to the point where it eventually got swallowed up by my other projects and interests, so it doesn't run deep by any means.

I am not an authority on Clarence H. White nor the history of photography, but I do know that he and his philosophy have been the subject of many scholarly books and papers. (One of them is Pictorialism into Modernism: The Clarence H. White School of Photography)

Nor am I a collector. I have so many of my own photographs to sort through it may never get done, and among those are so many I'd like to hang that I wouldn't take a collection of White prints if they were free, except to aid in their preservation.

Still, since there seems to be so few local folks who recognize the importance of CHW, I've been interested in seeing established locally some permanent display of his work, along with that of Walter White, who is no relation but also holds a worldwide reputation for contributions to the history of photography from the work that came out of his Newark studio. (I also have a Walter White Gallery)

To that end I visited the manager/curator of the Licking County Historical Society a few weeks ago and inquired about the CHW collection. She promised to send me a list of holdings, but failed to do so and I had not yet followed up.

Yesterday I learned that the LCHS has placed some or all of its White photographs up for auction. You can view little reproductions of these photos at the Sotheby's Auction site, if you type in the lot numbers 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, and 164 in the Lots Search box at the top of the page. When the hammer comes down April 8, 2008 Licking County will have been robbed of its (or some of its?) claim to international recognition and these works will have been scattered throughout the world.

A faraway collector of valuable photographs, including those of CHW, who knows the rules of such auctions has told me that once placed with this auction house there is no withdrawal, at least it's not at all common to do so. I think, however, a court order could stop the sale.

This sale of Clarence White's photographs is a monumental event in the cultural history of Newark and Licking County. The story of that sale and how it came about should be of interest to local media - as much or more than it is to me.

Who made that decision and why is a story Licking Countians need to be told. It is, after all, another chapter of an international story.