Eliot Porter’s Nature

Eliot Porter (United States, 1901-1990) is one of the best-known and most-beloved photographers in the American tradition. Brother to painter and critic Fairfield Porter, whose work is also on view at the PMA, Eliot Porter is credited for two major achievements: pushing color photography into the field of serious art photography and marrying his commitment to artistic expression with his commitment to the conservation of wildlife and wilderness areas. Porter worked extensively with the Sierra Club, publishing hundreds of images in books and portfolios in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, his photography was hugely popular among American audiences, although he struggled to achieve the same levels of renown from his peers in the community of American art photographers during the same period.