Eliot Porter: In the Realm of Nature

I admire Eliot Porter's work, and I have a few of his books (Eliot Porter, Iceland, Grand Canyon, Adirondacks, Maine, Chaos, In wildness is the preservation). The old book "Eliot porter" is autobiography with selected photos, and I think it is better than "In the realm of Nature".I was hoping for two things: 1) to read something new about Porter (beside general biography facts, that is expected to be repeated), and 2) to see new photos. The text gives almost nothing new that I already didn't know. Also, among some 90 photos, I already seen 20 or 25 of them in my previous books, and I have only 7 of around 25 books by Porter. From that sample, I can conclude that almost all photohraphs are (probably) already published in the Porter's previous books. Porter allways tryed not to repeat the photographs in his books, and I was hoping that this will be the case here. He left many thousands of photographs (as stated in this book), and I think that they could select some fine unpublished examples from this vast number of photos.However, the book is good, and for me it is worth to have 60 or 70 photographs that I haven't seen already.

This book combines some of the best photographs from several of Eliot Porter's many books. The reproductions in this book, which was printed in Italy, are as good as or better than those in the original books. I am happy to see books like this, which was printed in 2012, keeping the memory of Eliot Porter, the greatest color photographer, who died in 1990 after a fifty year career, alive and well.

Eliot Porter was one of the world's greatest nature photographers working in colour. Paul Martineau in his book has chosen 91 of Porter's photographs from the Greenberg & Steinhauser collections and the archive of Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Porter pioneered in the field of colour print making using Kodak's dye transfer process. The photographs in the book are reproduced beautifully. Unlike over coloured contemporary digital photography, Porter's dye transfer photographs have a subtle and soft colour. The book also has some examples of Porter's earlier black & white photographs.The book has an introduction by Michael Brune ED of the Sierra Club and an essay by Paul Martineau.Recommended for anyone interested in colour photography and the use of photography for conservation.

For people who love photography and its history, this book is a must. The presentation is skilled. It starts with Porter's black and white pictures and moves on to his color photography. Although I was familiar with many of these photographs, I had never seen them presented as part of the history of Porter's work and development. Nor had I realized that many of these familiar photographs were taken by Porter. No matter what the subject or type of film, Porter had a remarkable "eye". It is a pleasure to see what he did with it. I highly recommend this book.

I know it's difficult to adequately compress a persons' life into one book, but I thought this book didn't even come close. The meager text did not tell me anything new about Porter, his techniques, his life, etc.And, more importantly, the copy I received was not very well printed....especially compared to other books of his. The pictures were pretty flat and I didn't agree with alot of the selections.If you had no knowledge of Porter and this was a first introduction, it might not be a terrible purchase. I plan to give this one away.Thanks,Bob Barrett

I would say a must for every landscape photographer, but it would go over most of their heads. Don't look for screaming, over-saturated, spectacular, drama-drama-drama, photos here. And check out his brother's work, Fairfield Porter. Almost identical sensitivity, but a painter.

Excellent collection. The reproductions looks great - more attractive than many Porter books. The image selection is very broad, covering a wide range of what Porter did: earlier B&W landscapes, bird photography, intimate landscapes, and landscapes of a wider scope.

Elliot Porter is definitely a man who should be looked at/studied within the history of photography. The simplicity is stunning with nature herself providing the rich textural canvas of her form!

In general the quality of the reproductions in this book are awful, and do a real disservice to Porter's wonderful photography. I would urge anyone reading this to seek out a copy of the "Eliot Porter" retrospective (1987) instead, which contains most of the same photographs but with FAR superior printing.

This is a good introduction to Porters work for those seeking basic information. A good essay with all the necessary information and with plates well printed in good colour. Porter's intimate landscapes will not satisfy those who seek the larger view but are most rewarding. Less impressive are his bird pictures which now seem dated and overrated.

I have liked Eliot Porters work for a long time and found this book very enjoyable with some information I didn't know before. Recommended.

Recoge una muestra de la obra en BN de paisaje y aves, aunque el autor realmente donde destacó fue en el uso del color. En algunas imágenes se evidencia a nivel de reproducción que tienen margen de mejora, tendiendo a la subexposición y colores apagados. Sin embargo la selección de obras y reproducción en general están a buen nivel, con el estilo personal del autor, uno de los grandes.

Sehr schöne Fotos in sehr guter Druckqualität. Wer selber fotografiert, kann durch das Buch bzw. die Fotos auch viel lernen. Ich freue mich immer wieder, wenn ich die großartigen Fotos ansehe.