William Walter White was born on January 5, 1901 in Kirkersville, Ohio. In 1915 he developed in a room over a coal shed the first negatives exposed in his first camera. The "box" was an old 5 x 7 view camera purchased with $10 received for working for a funeral director. He then studied photographic chemistry while in high school in Kirkersville.

While serving in the Navy on the West Coast, he did aerial photography for a professional photographer during his off time.

Returning to Licking County, he moved to the third floor of the Green Bay Furrier Building, location that many movie greats came to know.
 
In 1953 he moved to the vacated YMCA building downtown. He worked there until a plane crash ended his career in 1958. He was flying as Captain in the Civil Air Patrol at the time. Mr. White is now retired and living in Kirkersville.

After much urging from Mr. Dever Timmons (famous salon photographer) Mr. White entered salon showings in 1936 and since then has received notable honors and medals from 57 countries all over the world proclaiming his artistry with a camera.

Mr. White has been awarded the coveted Fellowship in the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, the medal of the Photographic Institute of Brussels, the diploma of honor of the International Exhibition of Photography hung in Courtray, Belgium, and highest honors from virtually every important photographic exhibition in the world. The most distinquished being the Silver Plaque of India for 1st prize in the world in color photography. Mr. White is ranked 27th best photographer in the world overall.

The Silver Plaque of India was awarded Mr. White in 1947 in the Sixth International Salon of Photographic Art, held in Lucknow, India. The Plaque bears the impression of a cylindrical seal excavated from the ancient site of Mohenjodaro in Sind, and is the earliest example of Indian Art, dating back to 3,500 B.C. It represents the "Brahmini Bull", sacred to Shiva, and the inscription on the top has yet to be deciphered.

White's brilliant four color prints that won the Silver Plaque of India were hailed by the Eastman Kodak Company as "color perfection", even though they were made on Ansco film, manufactured by a rival company.

Nearly all of his black and white exhibition prints are made on Gevaluxe paper, a special photographic paper having a rough surface like unfinished suede. Imported from Belgium, this special paper accentuates the perfect contrast of light and shadow for which White has long been famous.

Probably the most famous picture in White' s collection is his 1935 study of the late Jean Harlow which won him world praise and was termed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios as the "most publicized still of any movie star who ever lived". A print of this picture now hangs in MGM'S main office in Culver City, California.

La Revue Moderne, the Parisian publication devoted to photography, reproduced many of his pictures which have been hung abroad, and commented at length on the artistry of Mr. White's work and the methods he used to secure unusual effects. The translation had to be made from the French.

The opening paragraph says: "There comes to us sometimes from America, artists most remarkable. Thus the photographs that W. W. White shows at the Salon 'Du Photographic Club de Cortrai' have an original merit.