Eliot Porter’s Birds

Update: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) will reopen to the public on Friday, June 19, 2020, with member-only days from June 16 through June 18. Eliot Porter’s Birds exhibit will remain on view through Sunday, July 5, 2020.

Note that face masks are required for all visitors and provided by the museum for those who arrive without them.

Eliot Porter (1901–1990) set the model for today’s nature photography. While he is internationally celebrated for his colorful renderings of the natural world, Eliot Porter’s Birds highlights his equal, career-long focus on photographing birds.

More than 30 photographs and archival objects are presented alongside excerpts from the artist’s extensive writings about his activities, giving visitors an opportunity to feel a direct connection with the artist.

Porter photographed birds almost every spring for more than 50 years, deeply appreciating their colors, variety, and ability to fly. He sought from the start to set a new artistic model for bird photography that aligned with the great lithographs of the 19th-century artist and naturalist John James Audubon.

Visitors will be able to experience how Porter pushed the limits of photographic technologies through a display of his personally designed camera outfit. Also on view are his research notes for locating and recording his subjects, and a display showing how he went about making his exquisite prints.

Pictured: (Arizona) Northern Cardinal, Male, X-9 Ranch, Arizona, May 5-6, 1952
Eliot Porter (1901–1990)
Artwork Credit: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, bequest of the artist