"The West of Eliot Porter" is new exhibit at UW Art Museum

From a UW press release:

An exhibition of works by landscape photographer Eliot Porter will open Saturday, Aug. 20, at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.

"The West of Eliot Porter: Images of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah" presents color landscape photographs from the Art Museum's permanent collection. It will be on view through Dec. 22. A free opening reception to celebrate this and other new fall exhibitions will be at the Art Museum Friday, Sept. 9, from 6-8 p.m.

Porter created a new way of viewing the world by introducing color to landscape photography, which today has become commonplace. He began working in color in 1939, long before his fellow photographers accepted the medium.

Trained as a chemical engineer and a medical doctor, Porter began his career in photography in the early 1930s by making black-and-white prints in his spare time while working as a bacteriologist and teaching at Harvard University. Photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz began to critique Porter's black-and-white photographs and in 1938 exhibited Porter's work in his New York gallery. The exhibition's success prompted Porter to leave Harvard and pursue photography full-time.

For more information about the UW Art Museum call (307) 766-6622 or visit the museum's webpage atwww.uwyo.edu/artmuseum or blog at www.uwartmuseum.blogspot.com .

Located in the Centennial Complex at 2111 Willett Dr. in Laramie, the museum is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and from 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Mondays. Admission is free.

Photo: "Aztec Creek, Glen Canyon, Utah - Blue/Gold Colors Reflected," is among Eliot Porter's works that can be seen Aug. 20-Dec. 22 at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.  (Elliot Porter)