|
Eliot
Porter
|
| PRELOADING IMAGES---> |
|
 "But before all else a work of art is the creation of love. Love for the subject first and for the medium second. Love is the fundamental necessity underlying the need to create, underlying the emotion that gives it form, and from which grows the unfinished product that is presented to the world. Love is the general criterion by which the rare photograph is judged. It must contain it to be not less than the best of which the photographer is capable." - Eliot Porter Photographers who mastered the media of black-and-white and color can be counted on less than one hand, and those who created qualitative bodies of work in each, with their own distinctive mark are fewer still. Eliot Porter, a master artist, succeeded in both. Porter was a photographer, biologist, ecologist, author and ornithologist. He received an M.D. degree in 1929 and taught biochemistry and biology at Harvard. Self-taught in photography, he first perfected his technique in black and white. In 1939, Alfred Stieglitz exhibited Porter's photographs at his New York City gallery, An American Place. Of that time, Porter recollects, "I rather abruptly began to devote all my time and energies to photography, largely of nature." Shortly afterwards, Porter began to work in color, which he found essential for the photography of birds in their natural habitat. He mastered the dye-transfer process, which enabled him to make brilliant, full-color enlarged prints from color film exposed in his camera.  The
Museum of Modern Art held an exhibition of his color photographs of birds
in 1943 and in 1959. Later, the International Museum of Photography at George
Eastman House showed "The Seasons", a spectacular collection of
color prints with quotations from Thoreau. The Smithsonian circulated the
exhibition nationally; the photographs became the basis of Porter's first
book, "In Wildness Is The Preservation of the World," published
by the Sierra Club.Porter is famous for his pioneering work in color photography. His photographs are the culmination of a double concern: as a scientist, he insists upon the accuracy and precision of the pictorial record; as an artist he constantly strives to make his pictures meaningful and lasting. "To all the subjects I photograph, I apply the criterion that if they are worth recording at all, they are worth doing in such a way that they can stand repeated viewing, even demand it, so that one can go back again and again to find new, hidden qualities missed at first." Although he is better known for his color pictures, Porter continued to work seriously in black-and white from 1937 through 1961. In 1939, he moved to Santa Fe and traveled throughout the Southwest. Except for a brief time away during WWII, he lived there until his death in 1990. Porter's archive is housed at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. All Eliot Porter Images © 1990 Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Beguest of Eliot Porter |
|
Enter Drawer View Portfolios |