Nude Foot, San Francisco, Minor White

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According to his writings, White would have us not view this photograph as a literal representation of a man’s body. Rather, he would want us to “read” the photograph symbolically, a process he called “equivalency” (a term he borrowed from Alfred Stieglitz). White described equivalency in the form of an equation- “Photography + Person Looking <--> Mental Image”-that not only defined the idea but gave it a scientific aura, in keeping with an era when science had acquired great importance. By insisting on a symbolic reading of his photographs, White could use them to explore his homosexuality while at the same time intentionally obscuring it from prying, controlling eyes that enforced conformity during the especially repressive era of the Cold War in the 1950s.