Reading and Research: Eliot Porter.

I first came across Eliot Porter when I was studying the Level 2: Landscape course and we had to produce a set of images in the style of his Intimate Landscapes.  Ever since then I have enjoyed producing detailed intimate landscapes myself and have found Porter's Images in his book of the same name inspirational. He was not the only landscape photographer to work at this scale, however, Paul Strand and Ansel Adams also produced intimate landscapes.

Born in 1901, Eliot Porter began photographing his own surroundings from an early age.  He went on to study chemistry at Harvard but he always continued to take photographs, initially in black and white.  At the age of 33 he met both Ansel Adams and Alfred Steiglitz and this increased his interest.  Following his meetings he invested in a Linhof medium format camera and in 1936 Steiglitz put on a solo exhibition of Porter's work in his gallery An American Place.  This was a real honour as Steiglitz had only ever produced solo exhibitions for Ansel Adams and Paul Strand. (Parkin, 2010)  As a result of this exhibition he gave up his career and a bacteriologist and teacher at Harvard to become a full-time photographer, but breaking away from the traditional genre by working in colour.  A year after his exhibition he began using the new colour transparency film from Kodak: Kodachrome and printing from his transparencies. (Getty Centre, 2006)

Not only did Eliot Porter work as a landscape photographer, he was passionate about bird photography and, as an added challenge, he worked in medium format.  The An American Place Exhibition enabled him to make a living out of photography.  Working in colour at that time was not popular as only black and white was considered to be art  and colour was only considered useful of advertising as Ansel Adams believed. (Parkin, 2010) Porter, though, was among the first photographers to successfully bridge the gap between photography as fine art and its roots in science and technology.  He worked hard to get the colour film to produce the range of tones that he required and he worked in large format to reduce the effect of the graininess of the early emulsions.  He also made extensive use of the dye transfer process in printing, which allowed more scope for adjustment. (Parkin, 2010)  He made use of the colour process to make highly expressive prints by slightly increasing the brilliance, contrast or saturation in the transparencies, much as Galen Rowell did 20 years later. (Getty Centre, 2006)

In the 1960s began to publish his books and of great importance was 'In Wilderness is the Preservation of the World'.  His work with the Sierra Club played an important role in the conservation movement of the 1960s and he served on the board of directors from 1965 - 1971. (Getty Centre, 2006)  In 1970 he wrote, "It has been said that wilderness is a luxury, a commodity that man will be forced to dispense with as his occupancy of the Earth approaches saturation.  If this happens he is finished.  Wilderness must be preserved; it is a spiritual necessity" (Getty Centre, 2006) Here Porter is probably referring to a quote made by Henry David Thoreau when he said "In Wilderness is the preservation of the World" in his seminal essay "Walking" written in the 1850s (Wikipedia, 2014).  This quote formed the title for Porter's ground-breaking book in which he uses quotes by Thoreau.  In much the same way today 'Green Therapy' is of great importance and has been written about at great length by Richard Mabey in his excellent book 'Nature Cure' published in 2005.

Eliot Porter, like myself, also had a passion for bird photography and experimented with shutter speeds fast enough to stop a bird's movement by the use of strobes. In 1941 he received a Guggenheim fellowship that enabled him to pursue this passion and in 1943 his bird photographs featured in a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York.  At the time of his death in 1990 his archive contained over 8000 bird images. (Getty Centre, 2006)

I am particularly attracted to his detailed close-up landscape images published in his 1979 book 'Intimate Landscapes'.  Phillipe de Montbellow, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, tells us in the forward to the book that the exhibition of these photographs was the first ever one man exhibition of colour photographs at MOMA.(Montbellow, 1979)  Porter says in the preface to Intimate Landscapes that he doesn't photograph for ulterior purposes, only for the thing itself.  He says that, although he has been criticised for taking photographs to promote conservation, it is far from the truth, but his images tend to be used for that purpose. (Porter, 1979).  He says that he has always been attracted to natural subjects, especially grasses and sedges.  Of his geological subjects he says it is the colours that are their most engaging characteristics. (Porter 1979)

I include some of Eliot Porter's images that I particularly like and, which, display his range of styles.

Image 1

I am attracted to this particular shot as the colours are richly saturated and I like the way the orange reflection in the top left is balance by the darker blues on the lower right.  The leaves at the bottom grab the eye and then the smaller leaves lead the eye into the image.

Image 2

The colours in this shot are amazing.  Many photographs of slot canyons in the US always make me think they are lit from within.

Image 3

I like the subtle colours of these lichen covered rocks and the precise, intricate detail in the picture.

Image 3

Lovely subtle colours here, which remind me of a picture I took in Braemar this September.

Image 4

A perfectly caught shot this, especially when one remembers that it was taken with a large format camera.  Today wildlife photographers would not go for the black background which is caused by using the strobes to achieve a fast shutter speed.  Today fast shutter speeds can stop bird movement without the need for strobes.

I also include some of my own images which are inspired by the work of Eliot Porter:-

 This image was inspired by ones such as Porter's lichen covered rocks., although these were on the beach at Achmelvic in the far north west of Scotland this September.

 A footpath through the woods at Braemar in the Cairngorms this September, inspired by images such as Eliot Porter's Path in the Woods.

 A chaffinch hovers in front of some fat wedged in the bark of a tree.  Today birds can be captured in flight without the use of powerful strobes.

 Another example of a bird captured in flight, this time a short-eared owl.

 A more static image, but a classic pose of a goldfinch on a teasel head.

A greater spotted woodpecker, related to the Flicker in Eliot Porter's image above.

References

Getty Centre (2006) Eliot Porter: In the Realm of Nature [online]. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Available from:  http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/ [Accessed 16.11.14]

Parkin, T. (2010) Eliot Porter, Master Photographer [online]. On Landscape.  Available from:
https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/2010/11/the-masters-eliot-porter/ [Accessed 16.11.14]

Porter, E. (1979) Intimate Landscapes. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art

Wikipedia (2014) Walking:Thoreau [online] Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_(Thoreau)


Images

Image 1. Porter, E. (1953) Pool in a Brook Dye Transfer Print [online image]
Available from:  https://www.onlandscape.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/1867.jpg [Accessed 16.11.14]

Image 2. Porter, E. (1961) Pool in Hidden Passage, Glen Canyon,Utah Dye Transfer Print. [online image] Available from:
  http://www.photographydealers.com/wp-content/uploads/Exhibit/eliot-porter-in-the-realm-of-nature/Large/reflections-Glen-Canyon.jpg  [Accessed 16.11.14]

Image 3. Porter, E. (1972)  Lichens on River Stones, Iceland  Dye Transfer Print [online image]
Available from: http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=258168&handle=li
[Accessed 16.11.14]

Image 4. Porter, E. (1981) Path in Woods, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine Dye Transfer Print [online image] Available from: Prinhttp://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/13807201_zm.htmlt  [Accessed 16.11.14]

Image 5. Porter, E. (1968) Eastern Flicker, Flying, Great Spruce Head Island,Maine Dye Transfer Print [online image] Available from:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/03/eliot-porter-realm-nature-review#  [Accessed 16.11.14]