Wendel A. White
Wendel A. White is a photographer and educator who has, for several decades, investigated the complex narratives held within landscapes, objects, and communities. White looks at the often-disconnected histories of Black life and how the ghosts of the past permeate present-day America. His in-depth photographic inquiries are exemplified in three significant bodies of work, Small Towns, Black Lives (1989–2002), Schools for the Colored (2002–2010), and Manifest (2009–present).
Watch
"Wendel A. White: Schools for the Colored," from State of the Arts, NJ
Selected Work
Exhibitions
Wendel A. White: “Schools for the Colored” & “Manifest”
April 5 – May 31, 2025
Artist News
Manifest: Thirteen Colonies
Peabody Museum at Harvard University
May 18, 2024–April 13, 2025
Manifest: Thirteen Colonies is Wendel A. White’s photographic engagement with African American material culture housed in collections throughout the thirteen original United States colonies and Washington, D.C.
Wendel A. White:
Schools for the Colored
SFO Museum, Terminal 2
Departures Level 2, Gallery 2E
Nov 12, 2024 – Nov 30, 2025
Wendel A. White’s photographic project, Schools for the Colored, delves into the legacy of racial segregation in America’s educational system. The series is an extension of White’s earlier work, Small Towns, Black Lives, and continues his exploration of the African American landscape. Through his lens, White captures the architectural remnants of segregated schools that are scattered across the Northern “free” states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. These schoolhouses, located on the boundary between the North and the South, represent an unresolved past for White and remain “one of the enduring spaces for the definition of race and class identity in the American landscape.”
