Clarence H. White - The Peacock Feather - 1980.145 - Cleveland Museum of Art

Clarence H. White (1871–1925), American photographer known for subtle portraits of women and children and also as an influential teacher of photography. White had from his early years an appetite for artistic and intellectual pursuits. After finishing high school in Newark, Ohio, he took a job as an accountant in his father’s grocery business and married in 1893. He taught himself the art of photography and photographed constantly despite his limited free time and finances; he costumed and posed family members and friends in the early dawn or evening hours, in their homes and in the open and produced elegantly posed and subtly lit images.