Collection on Charlie Arnold

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, Charles Arnold spent three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Navy during WWII, and 28 months overseas. He received his BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1949.

After five years of museum photography he came to the newly formed museum of photography at George Eastman House to work with Minor White as assistant to the curator, Beaumont Newhall.

Two years later, he joined the faculty of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT)’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. For five years he served as designer and design consultant of Minor White’s Aperture Magazine. Professor Arnold received his MFA in Communication Design in 1966. In 1970-1971 he taught at the London Polytechnic, School of Photography, in Regent Street in a teaching exchange.

Professor Arnold spent five weeks in Sao Paulo, Brazil as Photographic Consultant to the Editoria Abril, South America’s largest publisher, in 1975. In 1977 he returned to Brazil with a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Lectureship to exhibit and lecture in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Charles Arnold taught the first course in photography given at RISD in 1953. With Minor White, Ralph Hattersley, and Neil Croom, he wrote the BFA in photography program at RIT, became its first staff chairman, and served in that position for seven years. He taught at RIT for 32 years, in both graduate and undergraduate photography programs.

Professor Arnold has worked with Xerography as an art form since 1964. He exhibited in Brazil, Spain, England, Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States .