Timothy White (photographer)

White was brought up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, as the youngest of three children. His father was a financial controller for the Coast Guard, and his mother was a housewife.[1]

White received a diploma from Rhode Island School of Design in 1979.[2] He moved to New York City, where he began a career in photography by assisting a fashion and music photographer. He initially focused on shooting portraits for young musicians, aspiring models[1] and actors, and made forty trips to South America over the course of four years on travel assignments. Basing his experience of his South American work, he won an assignment at Rolling Stone to do a shoot for Yoko Ono.[3]

White has contributed to the covers of magazines such as Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone,[1] Esquire, and Playboy, as well as hundreds of movie posters for Hollywood's studios, including Sony, Paramount and Universal.

His work has also been seen on album covers for musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and Jon Bon Jovi.[4] He has photographed actors Harrison Ford, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn, Paul McCartney, Axl Rose, Whitney Houston, Nicolas Cage, Whoopi Goldberg, Yoko Ono, Elizabeth Taylor, Brad Pitt,[1] Will Smith,[5] Queen Latifah, and Julia Roberts,[6][7] and music artists Eric Clapton, Outkast, and Keith Richards.

White directed the music video "Love Gets Me Every Time" (1997) as he photographed Shania Twain for the Come On Over album art.[8] He has also directed television commercials and major ad campaigns such as Got Milk?[9] Queen Latifah's Queen perfume,[10] and Joyful Heart's No More PSA campaign for males who have experienced childhood sexual abuse.[11]

White is an avid car collector and also photographs automobiles.[6]

White relocated his studio from Manhattan, New York[1] to Los Angeles in 2013. He oversaw the opening of the Morrison Hotel Gallery's West Hollywood outpost located within the Sunset Marquis Hotel, and later became a part owner.[12] The gallery represents 90 photographers and features fine art photography of rock legends.[1][13]

White has done pro bono work for nonprofit and environmental organizations. For Recycle Across America, that provides recycle bins, he conducted a billboard shoot for their PSA national campaign.[14][15]

As part of volunteering for Riverkeeper, non-profit environmental organization for the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, he photographed pollution sites from a helicopter piloted by Harrison Ford.[16][17]

At the 2015 amfAR gala at Cannes, White's photograph of the AIDS research foundation, amFAR's founder Elizabeth Taylor giving the finger to paparazzi was bid by Lady Gaga and Aileen Getty each for $200,000,[18][19] and was auctioned for $80,000.[20]

All proceeds from the sale of his book Hollywood Pinups went to Oxfam America. For the book, he was commisioned by Esquire magazine to create a tribute to Alberto Vargas' creation of Vargas Girls, the paintings of pin-up girls for the magazine in the 1940s.[21][22] White photographed 23 women including Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, Susan Sarandon, Kate Hudson, and Cindy Crawford.[23]

The Newark Museum opened its gallery in the summer of 2003 with a retrospective installation of White's work.[24]

White has been named "one of the most influential people in photography" by American Photo magazine. He is the recipient of the Lucie Foundation's 2004 International Photographer of the Year award. He was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2019.[25][4]

He was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Photography at the third annual Hollywood Beauty Awards in 2019.[26] In turn, the Timothy White Award for Photography is a category, as the nominee categories get named after the current honorees.[27][28]

In 2003, food rescue organization City Harvest honored him with the Heart of the City Award, as the director of their ad on feeding the hungry.[29]

• Timothy White: Portraits, Rizzoli, 2001 ISBN 0-8478-2398-9
• Indian Larry, Merrell, 2006 ISBN 1-85894-334-5
• Hollywood Pinups, HarperCollins, 2008 ISBN 0-06-134959-3
• Match Prints, Harper Collins, 2010 ISBN 0-06-168912-2

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Timothy White (photographer).

• Timothy White - Official Website
• Timothy White at IMDb
• Putting the focus on Timothy White 2018 Portray interview