I was writing this blog on Christmas Day. My wife gave me a signed copy of Abelardo Morell’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” for the holidays. Now that is a truly wonderful book of photographs. And it got me thinking about all of the wonderful photography books that my wife had given me over the years. Several of these were portfolios by the great nature photographer Eliot Porter(1901-1990). Porter photographed the places that we liked to visit, Maine and the Adirondacks, and so has always carried a special meaning for us. And there was also an amazing book of photographs of Antarctica. 

Porter practiced photography in the milieu of Ansel Adams with the major exception that most of Porter’s images were in color. And color, mostly dye transfer prints in those days, was not as easy as it is today. He was a master at his craft. And I have spent a couple of days now revisiting some great images. I have been looking for the perfect image for this favorite series. Then I found something unusual. It was not a dramatic color image of nature. But rather an intimate portrait in black and white of his seven year old son Stephen with a bull snake. Yes the image is of nature, but in reality the image captures ever so perfectly the meaning of American boyhood.