Every Corner is Alive

"To be lost is to be fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery." -Rebecca Solnit, from A Field Guide to Getting Lost

I am a big fan of Rebecca Solnit. Her writing continually awes, influences, nurtures, and sharpens my mind. The first book I read of hers was River of Shadows, which is a probing and layered biography on Edward Muybridge. Wanderlust: A History of Walking is a book that weaves a complex landscape of many of my personal passions: the outdoors, art, the environment, history, and of course walking. Solnit has has written extensive essays and book introductions for the likes of John Pfahl, Mark Klett, and Richard Misrach. Her newest book, Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics, is a collection of her essays over the past roughly decade collected from various sources. The book is illustrated by a variety of artist and photographers (though unfortunately in low print quality, black and white) Her essays are politically charged and for the most part revisit many important issues Solnit has addressed or touched upon in previous books. While Solnit has continually weaved history, culture, politics, activism, feminism, and art into her writing, she clearly describes herself in Storming the Gates as a former art critic, past tense. Note: As Eve Said to the Serpent: On Landscape, Gender, and Art, published in 2001 by the University of Georgia, is specifically art criticism. To my surprise, in Gardens and Wilderness (section 6), of Storming the Gates, she includes an essay entitled Every Corner is Alive: Eliot Porter as an Environmentalist and an Artist.Eliot Porter, Pool in a Brook, Pond Brook, near Whiteface, New Hampshire, October, 1953

Now I must interject, embarrassingly, that I really did not know anything about Porter, before reading her essay, aside that he was at some point in history an important color landscape photographer. In fact, my knowledge is so naive, that when in graduate school at the University of New Mexico, Jim Stone told me that Adrienne Salinger had won the Eliot Porter prize for that year (2001 or 2002?) and I asked quite straight faced, who is Elliot Porter? to which Stones mouth about hit the floor and Adrienne had to silence him before he let me have it. In my defense, I did study photography history extensively in Graduate school with the likes of critic and photo historian Geoffrey Batchen. My detour here into my personal ignorance illuminates to some degree, my generation, the obscurity that Porter developed in the late 20th century (unlike his black and white colleague, Ansel Adams) and academic photo culture in general. After reading Solnit's essay, the first thing I had to do was rush out to the local used book store and buy " In Wildness is the Preservation of the World: Selections and Photographs by Eliot Porter.

Eliot Porter, Path in Woods, Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, 1981from Afterimage http://www.afterimagegallery.com/porterinwildness.htm

Solnit's essay rightfully restores Eliot Porters place as not only an important fine art photographer, but also a scientist and naturalist. Solnit goes in depth to discuss his life, work and the ecological significance of his photos and how they function at a level unbelievably close to nature. It is hard to imagine in 2008, that Porter was the "grandfather" of color nature photography including the large coffee table books and calendars of today. Porters relationship with the sierra club was also unique in that Porter was able to bridge both the fine art and environmental world. A relationship perhaps seemingly not so odd in this day and age but significant during Porters career. For myself, an awakening happened with Solnits essay that made me realize that I had somehow been neglecting a premier artist/environmentalist my entire adult life. With groundbreaking exhibits such as the 2006 The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, where was Elliot Porter?

You can find an extensive collection, information, and educational materials at the Carter Museum. http://www.cartermuseum.org/collections/porter/