Eliot Porter facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Eliot Furness Porter
Born	(1901-12-06)December 6, 1901 Winnetka, Illinois, U.S.
Died	November 2, 1990(1990-11-02) (aged 88) Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
Education	Harvard University (AB, MD)
Relatives	Fairfield Porter (brother)

Eliot Furness Porter (born December 6, 1901 – died November 2, 1990) was an American photographer. He is famous for his amazing color pictures of nature. His work helped show that color photography could be a serious art form.

Early Life and Learning

Eliot Porter's father, James Porter, taught him to love nature. He also encouraged Eliot to be very careful and scientific in his work. Eliot started taking photos as a child. He found inspiration by photographing birds on Great Spruce Head Island in Maine. This island belonged to his family.

Eliot went to Harvard College and earned a degree in chemical engineering. Then he went to Harvard Medical School and became a doctor. He even stayed at Harvard as a medical researcher for a while. Eliot had five brothers and sisters. One of them was Fairfield Porter, who became a well-known painter and art critic.

Photography Career

Eliot's brother, Fairfield, introduced him to a famous photographer named Alfred Stieglitz around 1930. Stieglitz saw Eliot's photos and told him to keep working hard. In 1938, Stieglitz showed Eliot's pictures in his gallery in New York City. The show was a big success! This encouraged Eliot to become a full-time photographer.

Southern American Redstart, male

Eliot became very interested in color photography. This happened after a publisher said no to his idea for a bird book. The publisher felt that black and white pictures would not show the different bird species clearly enough.

Eliot started using a new color film called Kodachrome, which came out in 1935. It was hard to use, especially for taking pictures of fast-moving birds. But Eliot used his science background to experiment. He worked hard until he could take great color photos.

His bird pictures were shown in 1943 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. This was the first time color photographs were ever shown there! His book, American Birds: 10 Photographs in Color, came out in 1953.

Nature Books and Recognition

For 20 years, Eliot worked on a project. He wanted to publish nature photos with quotes from the writer Henry David Thoreau. Finally, he found a publisher through the Sierra Club.

In 1962, his book In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World was published. It showed Eliot's beautiful color photos of the New England woods. This book was very popular, even though it cost a lot. It also started a new trend of large, beautiful nature photography books. Many more of Eliot's books were published by the Sierra Club and other groups.

This book made Eliot much more famous. He even served on the board of directors for the Sierra Club from 1965 to 1971. In 1971, he was chosen as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 1979, Eliot Porter's work was shown at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This was the first time a solo show of color photography was held there. This exhibition helped people see color photography as a true form of fine art. His photos often showed "intimate landscapes." These were close-up pictures of nature, like quiet scenes of plants and rocks. They had soft colors and rich textures.

Travels and Later Work

Eliot traveled all over the world to photograph important natural and cultural places. He published books with photos from places like Glen Canyon in Utah, Maine, Baja California, the Galápagos Islands, Antarctica, East Africa, and Iceland.

He also photographed cultural sites in Mexico, Egypt, China, Czechoslovakia, and ancient Greek places. His book about Glen Canyon, The Place No One Knew, showed the canyon before it was flooded by the Lake Powell reservoir.

In 1987, a book called Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick came out. It made Eliot think about his own work in a new way. They worked together on a project called Nature's Chaos, which came out in 1990. It combined Eliot's photos with a new essay by Gleick.

Eliot Porter passed away in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990. He gave his personal collection of work to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.

Personal Life

Eliot Porter's brother, Fairfield Porter, was a painter and art critic. His brother-in-law, Michael W. Straus, worked for the United States Bureau of Reclamation.

Eliot was married to Marian Brown from 1927 to 1934. He then married Aline Kilham in 1936. They moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and lived in Tesuque, New Mexico starting in 1946.

Books by Eliot Porter

• In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World, 1962
• The Place No One Knew, Glen Canyon on the Colorado, 1963
• Summer Island: Penobscot country, 1966
• Birds of North America A Personal Selection", 1972
• Antarctica, 1978
• Intimate Landscapes, 1979
• Southwest, 1985
• Eliot Porter, 1987
• Nature’s Chaos, 1990