A return to Sleepy Hollow has brought photographer William C. White back not only to the community of his early life, but also to an artistic passion that began decades ago.
Visitors to Bridge View Tavern in Sleepy Hollow can currently see a selection of photographs by local photographer and fine artist William C. White. The exhibit represents much more than a collection of images. It is part of a homecoming story.
White returned to Sleepy Hollow two years ago after spending much of his adult life in Berkeley California. The reason for his return was deeply personal, to help care for his 101-year-old mother who has sadly transitioned.
Coming home also gave him an opportunity to rediscover the Hudson Valley through the eyes of an artist.
Photography and visual art have been part of White’s life for decades. He attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fine Arts with a minor in Business Administration. Although his professional career ultimately took him largely into business administration, nonprofit management, public service and aviation, the artist never disappeared.
His professional life has been unusually varied. White served as Staff Accountant for the Alumnae Association of Mills College, Business Manager for the California Shakespeare Theatre and Director of Operations for the Berkeley YMCA. His LinkedIn profile describes him as a retired business management consultant.
Public service became another major part of his life. White served on several City of Berkeley commissions, including the Personnel Board and Cable Television Board. From 1996 to 2013, he served on Berkeley’s Police Review Commission the nations first Civilian Oversight Board. This including three terms as Chair.
He later was appointed to the newly created BART Police Citizen Review Board. This board was created as a result of an ofc. involved shooting of Oscar Grant in 2009. That incident was later documented in a Academy Award recognition in 2014.
Aviation has been another lifelong passion. White is a private pilot, past president of the Alameda Flying Club and has been involved with the Bay Area Black Pilots Association. Today, he is a director of the JetPerfect Foundation, an organization associated with innovation, aviation and the development of more sustainable approaches to flight.
Yet throughout those different chapters—businessman, administrator, pilot, civic volunteer and community advocate, there remained the eye of an artist.
His return to Sleepy Hollow has provided a new landscape for that eye.
The Hudson River, the changing light, architecture, streets, people and familiar surroundings of the Rivertowns offer subjects that are both visually interesting and personally meaningful. White’s photography is less about simply recording what is in front of the camera than noticing something that might otherwise be passed by.
His current exhibit at Bridge View Tavernbrings that work into an everyday community setting, where the photographs become part of the environment rather than something separated from daily life by the walls of a traditional gallery.
One of White’s photographs has also found a particularly local home: a photograph now hangs in the office of Sleepy Hollow Mayor Marjorie Hsu.
For White, that recognition has special significance. After decades away, he has returned to a community that is simultaneously familiar and dramatically changed.
The photographs become, in a sense, a conversation between those two places, the North Tarrytown he remembers and the Sleepy Hollow he is discovering today.
And perhaps that is what makes this exhibit particularly personal.
It is not simply an artist displaying photographs.
It is a man returning home, looking at his community again, and finding new ways to see it.
