About photographer Charlie White for sophomore year photography class.

1. CHARLIE WHITE
born 1972, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2. Information
• Los Angeles-based artist
• White received his BFA in 1994 from the School of Visual
Arts, New York.
• Received his MFA from Art Center College of Design,
Pasadena, California, in 1998.
• He is the Director of the MFA program at the Roski
School of Fine Arts, University of Southern California in
Los Angeles.

3. Background
• Grew up in Philadelphia
• He was educated at the high school for Creative and
Performing Arts (CAPA), in Philadelphia.
• While a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York,
he worked as an assistant to artists Laurie Simmons and
Carroll Dunham.
• Studied with Marilyn Minter.

4. • White moved to Los Angeles in 1996 to attend the Art
Center College of Design
• He studied with artists Steven Prina and Christopher
Williams, and received his MFA in 1998.
• While a student, White created the project Femalien,
which was published in CHERI magazine.
• The magazine was sold at an exhibition at the Andrea
Rosen Gallery in November/December of 1996.

5. History of works 1999-2008
• White's photographs explore America’s social fictions and
tensions in identity and perception.
• White’s earlier works were influenced by photographers
Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall, as in his first
photographic series In a Matter of Days (1999) and
Understanding Joshua (2001).
• These play on reality and fiction.

6. • In 2003 White exhibited And Jeopardize the Integrity of
the Hull (2003), a series of eleven photographs that look
at religion, entertainment, privacy, and pop culture.

7. • In 2006 White exhibited
Everything is American
(2006), a series of works
looking at collective trauma
and national anguish, such
as the Manson Family
murders in 1969 and the
1978 Jonestown massacre.

8. • In 2008 White exhibited Girl Studies, a series consisting
of a 35mm short film titled American Minor, an
experimental animation titled OMG BFF LOL (inspired by
Girl Studies), and a series of new photographs.
Girl Studies
American Minor movie still

9. Exhibition History
• White’s work has been exhibited in the Center of
Contemporary Art of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain; ZKM
Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe, Germany; Shanghai
Museum of Contemporary Art, China; Hammer Museum,
Los Angeles, CA; Oberösterreichisches Landesumuseum,
Linz, Austria; Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces,
Melbourne, Australia; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
San Francisco; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York;
and ICA Philadelphia, PA.

10. • White was included in Art in America NOW at the
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Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art.
White’s work was included in The Puppet Show at the ICA
Philadelphia and The Old Weird America at Houston
Contemporary Art Museum, and it will be included in Nine
Lives: Visionary Artists in Los Angeles, curated by Ali
Subotnik, at the Hammer Museum in March 2009.
White’s film American Minor was shown at the 2009
Sundance Film Festival.
Charlie White is represented by Brändström Gallery,
Stockholm; Loock Gallery, Berlin; and fa Projects, London.
From 1999–2006, White exhibited with Andrea Rosen in
New York.

11. Publications
• Hysteric Four, 1999, Hysteric Glamour Japan. (limited
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edition)
Charlie White Photographs, 2001, Goliath Books
Germany.
And Jeopardize the Integrity of the Hull, 2003, TDM Paris.
(limited edition)
Charlie White, 2006, DOMUS ARTIUM Spain. Exhibition
Catalog, essays by Jan Tumlir.
Monsters, 2007, Powerhouse Books. Essay by Sally
O’Rielly, with an interview by Benjamin Weismann.
American Minor, 2009, JRP | Ringier. Essays by Christoph
Doswald and Dorothea Strauss.

12. Music Videos
• Charlie White created a music video for the band Interpol
in 2004 for the single "Evil", from the album Antics.
• He also directed the lead single for the band's 2010 selftitled release, "Lights".
• Charlie White took part in the 2006 Adicolor web
campaign, which invited young directors to make a short
web film based on a color.
• White selected the color pink, and worked with musician
Greg Weeks.