Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Eliot Porter @ The Getty

The Getty boasts one of the most important collections of photography -- which it displays with parcimony, in exhibits usually centered around a specific photographer. This month, it presents Eliot Porter - In the Realm of Nature.
Porter was trained a chemical engineer and medical doctor, but he abandoned his career at Harvard to pursue a passion for photography.
He is known for his exquisite photographs of birds and landscapes, which have been used to advocate conservation causes. He also promoted the use of color at a time when most serious photographers worked in black and white. He is reputed to have made aesthetic and technical contributions to bird and landscape photograhpy that transformed the genres.
Porter's dye transfer prints bring a unique focus on detail and color. I didn't know him, and the exhibit turned out to be a coup de coeur.
photos photographydealers.com

3 comments:

With Love, Fat Girl said...

I've been to the Getty, and it is one impressive place. The exhibit I saw was architectural plans for major European cities, which was absolutely amazing. Sure wish the souvenir shop had carried some of those drawings.

LA Frog said...

The Getty is indeed an impressive place. It's massive, with multiple uses -- and yet, it has a human scale rare in today's large developments. Beyond its art and exhibits, it's a very zen place, with constant visual wonders and stimulations. It's always a delicious pleasure to go there.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pictures - almost as if looking through a micron microscope.