Eliot Porter

Father of color landscape photography

By: Noelle
Who is Eliot Porter?

Eliot Porter was an American photographer

who focused on landscape photography. He
was an ametuer photographer as a child and
he rediscovered his passion as an adult. He
gave up medical research to pursue a career
in photography. After starting to take photos
full time, he had his work displayed at An
American Place in New York.
What did Eliot specialize in?

He specialized in landscape photography,

landscape photography is when the
photographer focuses on taking photos of
nature. He took pictures of birds and nature
as a child and his love for nature is one of
the things that drove him to become a
landscape photographer. He was also
inspired by Ansel Adams, another landscape
photographer, and Adams encouraged him
to start taking photos.

Lichens on River Stones, 1972

Favorite Images (Part 1)

Path In Woods was taken in Porter in

1981 on Great Spruce Head Island
in Maine. I like that Porter captured
a seemingly simple scene but can
also make it powerful at the same
time. It seems that this picture is a
picture most people can replicate
and that would be true but Porter’s
style of taking the picture is tricky to
replicate. You can’t make an iPhone
picture or digital camera picture look
a picture taken on film or get the
same amount of lighting as there is
in this photo.
Path In Woods, 1981
Favorite Images (Part 2)

Pool in a Brook was taken in 1953 in

Whiteface, New Hampshire. I love
the way the leaves from the trees
reflect on the water and I like that
Eliot left the leaves on the water in
the picture and didn’t edit them out. I
like that Porter isn’t afraid to have
imperfections in his pictures, I think
imperfections can add character to a
picture.
 Porter’s best technical aspects

Porter always promoted the use of color in

photography at a time when black and white
photos were still commonplace and dominant. He
also used lots of light in his photos and made the
colors in his photos more vivid. He focused a lot
on detail and texture in photos as well,
contributing to the “too beautiful to be real” vibe.

Cliff, Moonlight Creek,

San Juan River, Utah,
5/23/62
Why do I like Porter’s work?

I like the way Porter colored and lighted his

pictures and I like that Porter isn’t afraid to
have imperfections in his pictures. Like leaves
floating on water, most people would
probably edit that out, but Porter didn’t edit
those types of things out of his pictures and
keeping them in added character to the
picture.
Before and After shots

Before After (Edited with Pixlr Suite

(Original) because I don’t want to
pay for Photoshop)
My Eliot Porter style photo (part 1)
My idea with this photo was
to replicate Porter’s 1981
photo, Path in Woods. The
trail is in ⅔ of the the
photo and I took a
straightforward approach to
taking this photo, like Porter
did.

Hinckley Lake
 My Eliot Porter style photo (part 2)

Looking through most of

my camera roll, I
realized that I was
already taking pictures in
Porter’s style. I take a
straightforward approach
to my photos, but I
usually don’t focus on
details, I mostly focus on
the big picture. Here is
one of pictures that
focuses a little more on
detail.
Waterfalls in Painesville
My Eliot Porter style photo (part 3)

This photo that I

took focuses on the
trees reflecting on
the water, but you
can still see the
details of the trees.
As I’ve mentioned
before, Porter
focuses on a subject
and its details.

Hudson Springs Park

Sources

Works Cited

Eliot Porter (Getty Center Exhibitions). J. Paul Getty Museum, www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/porter/.

Accessed 22 May 2023.

The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 3 Feb. 2013, www.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/03/eliot-

porter-realm-nature-review. Accessed 23 May 2023.

Holden Luntz Gallery. www.holdenluntz.com/artists/eliot-porter/. Accessed 23 May 2023.

International Center for Photography.

www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/eliot-porter?all/all/all/all/0. Accessed 22 May 2023.