I have the profoundest respect for nature photographers, for not only do I feel like a kinded spirit to them when reading about their lives and viewing their photographs, I also love to do my own nature photography, and try to learn from these masters of the art form, even as I make my own unique contributions and share them with others.
I went though my photo archive for the past year and chose Nature photos that I hope willl serve as my personal tribute to this great photographic artist
As many people would choose Ansel Adams to be the best photographer in the medium of black and white, many consider Eliot Porter to be the best nature photographer who specialized in color. In fact, he early on brought color nature photograhy into the pantheon of great photographic art to be exhbited and sold. But it is in his superlative portfolio books that the glory of his work is best known and revealed. (For example, “The West,” “The Appalachian Wilderness: the Great Smokey Mountains,” and his masterpiece, “In Wildness is the Preservation of the World,” with quotations from Henry David Thoreau..” His New England and Appalachian wilderness photography is stunning, but he traversed the world as well with his meticulous eye for photography. He perfected the art of photographing birds. I love the way he absorbs the details of a patch of landscape. He comes in close with his camera or focuses on a section of the outdoors we might never notice. This is what artists do — they let us see with fresh eyes and new perspectives.
If you are interested in reading more about his life, here is a link to his Wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Porter
According to the Getty Museum artist biography of Porter, “Between the late 1930s when the first popular color film was invented, and the mid-1970s when art museums began collecting color photography, Porter made vivid images of landscapes and birds. During that time, his photographs–which are remarkable for their subtlety and vibrancy–encouraged widespread acceptance of color photographs as works of art.”
“Porter was born in Winnetka, Illinois in 1901 to a prosperous family. As a boy he photographed the natural surroundings of his family’s summer home, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine. After earning degrees in chemical engineering and medicine, he spent a decade working as a scientist and teacher. The elegant black-and-white landscapes he made at the time reflected the influence of photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Ansel Adams. In 1938, Stieglitz gave Porter a solo show at his influential New York art gallery, An American Place. That significant event inspired Porter to make photography his profession. In 1939, he switched to color photographic materials, mastering the delicate multi-step printing techniques.
“Although Porter often struggled against an opinion that color photographs were not art, his exquisite prints earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.” Source : Getty Museum)
Here is an extensive collection of his photographs from The New Mexico Museum of Art:
These are two albums of my Nature photography taken over the past year. I see the influence of Porter in many of these photos, but I also see my own unique compositional style and my own vision of Nature.
Portfolio 1
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/14Nu6uP302
Portfolio 2
https://www.flickr.com/gp/camas/92T25d4210
Loading comments...