Gainesville’s “fadeless photographer” emerges from the shadows, studio collection on display

Founded by White’s father, Nathan Carrel White Sr., NC White’s studio first stood at 40 Main Street. Much of the older White’s work was likely lost in the 1936 tornado that also demolished the studio, Jones said.

As a self-proclaimed “manufacturer of colorless photographs,” White Jr. converted the studio at 221 Main Street, where it remained until his 1958 retirement.

In addition to weddings, christenings, portraits, grieving loved ones, businesses, and landscapes, the studio has shot photos for the City of Gainesville, Standard Oil, New Holland Mill, Gainesville Northwest Railroad, The Atlanta Constitution, and Brenau College.

While his work spanned a period when racial tension was high in the south, White kept racism out of his studio. His archives include black and Native American men, women, and children whom White offered to wear the same clothing as his Caucasian subjects.

“It’s so significant – he was one of the few photographers in northeast Georgia who photographed people of color,” said Jones. “He not only photographed people of color, but also made them wear the same clothes. He had clothes in the studio that people could wear and he didn’t have ‘colored clothes’ and ‘white clothes’ – they could all wear the same thing. “

It wasn’t just Northeast Georgians who posed for White’s camera; People traveled across Georgia, the Carolinas, and even Washington DC to be photographed by the Fadeless Photographer, Jones said.

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