its January issue presents the Annual International
Picture Contest, where the editors select and pub-
lish 50–75 images from the tens of thousands that
readers have submitted to the magazine. The edi-
tors ofPopular Photographywrite articles that help
their readers take better photographs and to suc-
cessfully navigate through the ever-changing world
of film and digital photography: Recent articles
include How To Shoot Pro Portraits, Nine Pros
Show Why and How to Use Autofocus, Online Photo-
processing: Wonders or Blunders.Monthly Depart-
ments featured inPopular Photographyinclude,Your
Best Shot, an ongoing photo contest/column where
each month the best of readers’ submitted images are
published;Point & Shoot; Just Out; What’s On; Sint’s
View, a column where technical advice and analysis
for professional/advanced photographers is given;
Nature, a column where detailed information about
taking successful nature/landscape shots is given;The
Camera Collector, classic cameras from eras-gone-by
are discussed and pined for;Digital Hands On,which
features reporting and testing of new digital equip-
ment; andWeb Watch, a discussion of the best
photo-related sites on the internet. Also, of much
interest to its readers is the fact that many mail-
order firms specializing in photography advertise in
Popular Photography, offering great variety and
some hard-to-beat prices.
Popular Photography is looking toward the
photographic future with articles and special
semi-annual issues on digital technological break-
throughs that will be influencing and changing the
art of picture taking and image making. Along with
technical reports of the latest film-based cameras
and lenses,Popular Photographyis reporting on the
latest crop of digital cameras, scanners, printers,
and software. But as much asPopular Photography
looks forward, the magazine is always mindful of
where it came from; each monthPopular Photogra-
phyfeatures a departmentTime Exposure, bringing
the readers back in time by reporting on what was
featured in magazine 25 and 50 years ago. In 2001,
Popular Photography, renamedPopular Photogra-
phy & Imaging, is at the forefront of a rapidly
changing photographic medium and industry.
And after 65 years of successful publication his-
tory, neitherPopular Photography, nor the popu-
larity of—nor fascination with—picture taking,
shows any signs of fading away.
BobLazaroff
Seealso: Capa, Robert; Cartier-Bresson, Henri;
Duncan, David Douglas; Eastman Kodak Company
Modern Photography; Eisenstaedt, Alfred; Kerte ́sz,
Andre ́; Periodicals: Professional; Steiglitz, Alfred;
Strand, Paul; Vernacular Photography; War Photo-
graphyFurther Reading
Fondiller, Henry V., ed. The Best ofPopular Photography:
Over 40 Years of Major Events, Ideas, Techniques and
Achievements of Renowned Photographers—From the
Pages of the World’s Foremost Photographic Magazine.
New York: Ziff-Davis Publishing Co., 1979.ELIOT PORTER
American
Eliot Porter, known for his color photographs of
nature, is credited as being the twentieth century’s
first serious practitioner of color landscape and
nature photography. In some ways his career was
very straightforward and in others it was filled with
tension. Among the obstacles that Porter faced was
the stigma of being a color photographer in the
mid-twentieth century when black-and-white was
the accepted medium of serious artists. Yet Porter’s
commitment to color allowed him to amass a sig-
nificant body of work that balances a love of
science and nature with a desire for precision and
creative expression. His photographs simulta-
neously pique curiosity about the many splendors
of the natural world and make the potentially
ordinary gleam as extraordinary.
Eliot Furness Porter was born on 6 December
1906 to an upper-middle class family living in thePORTER, ELIOT