Nicholas Whitman is an American photographer. He is best known for his work chronicling the decay and transformations of buildings, as well as his nature studies. His most recent work’s basis is the physical world, but more as an "evocative interpretation rather than a literal one." "Subject intersects with intangibles like mood. Symbols speak across cultures and through time." These themes are manifest in the painting of Albert Pinkham Ryder, a recent focus of Whitman's. Whitman’s show “After Ryder” at the New Bedford Whaling Museum from 2018-2019 was an homage to the spirit of the painter, and in 2021 another show, A Wild Note of Longing: Albert Pinkham Ryder and a Century of American Art exhibited Whitman's work alongside Ryder's.
Whitman began photographing North Adams’ abandoned Sprague Electric Company factory in 1988 “because it would surely be razed.” Documenting the then-deteriorating 19th-century mill buildings, Whitman captured scenes ranging from vast postindustrial landscapes to Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art's celebrated renovated factory campus—are currently on display in the museum and accompanied by an expanded catalog, Whitman's 2008 book, The Colonial Theatre: A Pittsfield Resurrection, showcases the transformation of the Miller Supply Company of Pittsfield, Massachusetts into an architectural jewel.
A graduate of RITs photography program, Whitman was Curator of Photography at the New Bedford Whaling Museum from 1978 to 1986. He was an instructor at Williams College's winter studies program between 2003-2018.
In concert with commissioned work Whitman continues to mine numerous veins of expressive photography. Several of which have resulted in books, gallery shows and museum exhibitions.
IG @nicholaswhitman_photo
