Sandblaster, San Francisco, California
1949
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 21.6 × 25.1 cm (8 1/2 × 9 7/8 in.) sheet: 27.6 × 35 cm (10 7/8 × 13 3/4 in.)
Classification
Photograph
Department
CPH
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Robert B. Menschel
Accession Number
2019.180.1.3
Art Historical Context
**Sandblaster, San Francisco California** (1949) is a striking gelatin silver print by Minor White, a figure in mid-20th-century American photography. Captured in the bustling post-World War II era, the image evokes the gritty industrial pulse of San Francisco, where workers like sandblasters reshaped urban landscapes amid economic recovery and rapid modernization. White, who moved to the Bay Area in the late 1940s, documented such scenes with a keen eye for form and texture, blending documentary realism with emerging poetic sensibilities. As a master of the gelatin silver process—a silver-ba...
About the Artist
Minor White
Minor White (1908–1976) was an American photographer, editor, and educator who became one of the most influential figures in postwar American art photography. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he studied botany and English at the University of Minnesota before turning to photography in the late 1930s, working for the WPA and the Portland Art Museum. After serving in World War II, White studied at C...