Calapooya magazine features one of America's top photographers
Published: July 22, 2004
David Axelrod
Contact at
963-9178
Anyone interested in the history of La Grande should enjoy the new issue of Calappoya, a publication Eastern Oregon University, edited by EOU writing professors Jodi Varon and David Axelrod.
Calapooya 24 is a special issue devoted to the American photographer Minor White, who lived and taugh in La Grande in the early 1940s.
The issue features articles about White by local author and EOU emeritus writing professor George Venn and Tiffany Stith Cooper, a recent University of Oregon student of art history.
Besides a substantial portfolio of White's photographs from Portland and La Grande, Calapooya 24 includes aletters and photographs from the archives of local photographer Fred Hill, who was a student and friend of White's during his time here in La Grande.
In their introductory essay, Varon and Axelrod call the current issue of Calapooya 24 historic, not just in its content, but in the fact that most of the material that makes up this issue has never been published.
Twop hundred misplaced negatives that White made while living in Oregon and working for the WPA surfaced recently in the photographic archives of the Portland Art Museum. Working with PAM and Calapooya's art editor, Ben Mitchell, the editors were able to bring these images to the public for the first time.
The staff were delighted by the quality of the photographs White took along the Portland waterfront. "It's astonishing work," said Varon. "This is early work by White, but it clearly demonstrates why he is considered among the great American photographers of the 20th Century."
Axelrod agreed and added, "The fact that much of this material we are publishing also prominently features the citizens of La Grande participating in art programs at the local arts center at 10 Depot Street was gravy as far as we were concerned."
Calapooya is available at La Grande bookstores for $5 or directly from the editors at Calapooya, One Unviersity Blvd., Eastern Oregon University, La Grande 97850.
