Eliot Porter

Infobox Artist
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name = Eliot Porter

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imagesize = 250px
caption = Cover of book "Eliot Porter" (Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1987)
birthname =
birthdate = December 6, 1901
location = Winnetka, Illinois
deathdate = Death date and age|1990|11|02|1901|12|06
deathplace = Santa Fe, New Mexico
nationality = American
field = photography
training =
movement =
works = color nature photographs
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Eliot Porter (1901–1990) was an American photographer best known for his color photographs of natureAmon Carter Museum. [http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/porter/index.php Eliot Porter collection guide.] Retrieved September 12, 2008.] .

Photography career

An amateur photographer since childhood, Porter earned degrees in chemical engineering and medicine, and worked as a biochemical researcher at Harvard UniversityAmon Carter Museum. [http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/porter/about.php Biography of Eliot Porter.] Retrieved September 12, 2008.] . Around 1930 he was introduced to Ansel Adams by a friend of the family and to Alfred Stieglitz by his brother Fairfield Porter. Stieglitz continued to critique Porter’s black and white work, now taken with a small Linhof view cameraAmon Carter Museum. [http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/porter/about.php?sec=chron Eliot Porter: a chronology.] Retrieved September 12, 2008.] . In 1938, Stieglitz showed Porter's work in his New York City galleryJ. Paul Getty Museum. [http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/ Eliot Porter: in the realm of nature. June 13 - September 17, 2006 at the Getty Center.] Retrieved September 12, 2008.] . The exhibit's success prompted Porter to leave Harvard and pursue photography full-time. In the 1940s, he began working in color with Eastman Kodak's new dye transfer process, a technique Porter would use his entire career.

Porter's reputation increased following the publication of his 1962 book, "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World". Published by the Sierra Club, the book featured Porter's color nature studies of the New England woods and quotes by Henry David Thoreau. A best-seller, several editions of the book have been printed.

Porter traveled extensively to photograph ecologically important and culturally significant places. He published books of photographs from Glen Canyon (Utah), Maine, Baja California, Galápagos Islands, Antarctica, East Africa, and Iceland. Cultural studies included Mexico, Egypt, China, Czechoslovakia, and ancient Greek sites.

James Gleick’s book "" (1987) caused Porter to reexamine his work in the context of chaos theory. In 1990, Porter published "Nature's Chaos" which combined his photographs with Gleick's writings. Porter died in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990 and bequeathed his personal archive to the Amon Carter Museum.

Eliot Porter's brother, Fairfield, was a realist painter and art critic. His brother-in-law Michael W. Straus was the commissioner of the federal Bureau of Reclamation.

References