Book excerpt: This book presents the first comprehensive examination of the photographic work and teaching of Clarence H. White and his students, who were New York's vanguard art photographers in the first half of this century. The incisive texts, written by two White scholars, examine the social context of White's ideologies, and arts and crafts principles. These beautifully reproduced images reveal the photographic work of White and his students, which is based on the aesthetic principles that formed the foundations of modernism.