Eliot Porter (1901-1990)

Eliot Porter is known as the father of color and nature photography. His classic photographs parallel Ansel Adams' achievements in black and white silver print landscapes. Porter's greatest legacy are the spectacular dye transfer prints from a series of limited edition portfolios including GLEN CANYON, 1980; IN WILDNESS, 1981; TREES, 1988 and CERTAIN PASSAGES, 1989, in which he captured the breathtaking color, spirit and "calm beauty" of the American wilderness.

In 1939, ten years out of Harvard Medical School, Porter gave up medicine to devote himself to photography, encouraged by Alfred Stieglitz who had exhibited his work in his gallery An American Place in 1938. Color photography had long been criticized by the art world for being too literal for serious art, yet Porter almost single-handedly overcame the art world's stubborn rejection of the medium. In 1979 The Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited fifty-five of Porter's color photographs, the museum's first exhibition of color photography. Porter had succeeded in his efforts to "make people aware of the natural beauty around them."

All Eliot Porter images are © 1990, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, Bequest of the artist.

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