Object number2022.22.12
Frostbitten Apples, Tesuque, New Mexico
Portfolio/Seriesfrom the portfolio Intimate Landscapes
Date1966
Artist
Eliot Porter
(American, 1901-1990)
CultureAmerican
MediumDye transfer print
EditionOne from an edition of 250
DimensionsImage: 13 1/2 x 10 3/4 in. (34.3 x 27.3 cm)
Mount: 23 x 17 in. (58.4 x 43.2 cm)
Matted: 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Mount: 23 x 17 in. (58.4 x 43.2 cm)
Matted: 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Tom Strong in memory of Dorothy Marsh Morgan (Strong), class of 1928
On View
Not on viewPeriod20th c.
Classification(s)
SignedOn mount, signed lower right in pencil: Eliot Porter
InscribedOn mount, by unidentified hand, lower right corner in pencil: FLLAC 2022.22.12
MarkingsOn reverse of mount, stamped lower left corner in ink: This print has been published in an edition / of 250 and was selected by the artist from the exhibition / Eliot Porter: Intimate Landscapes / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / This dye transfer print was made under the supervision / of Eliot Port by Berkey K&L, New York / Copyright © 1979 by Daniel Wolf Press, Inc, and Eliot Porter
BibliographyPorter, Eliot. Intimate Landscapes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979, pl. 32, pp. 95-96
Porter, Eliot and Martha A. Sandweiss. Eliot Porter. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1987, pl. 4Vassar Exhibitions
Label TextThe photograph belongs to Eliot Porter’s broader investigation of ecological time, elevating natural phenomena to central focus. Captured in Tesuque, New Mexico, where he established his home and studio, the work emerged from his sustained attention to high desert rhythms. A pioneer in color photography, his bestselling Sierra Club publications brought color nature photography to mass audiences and garnered critical acclaim. Porter approached the medium with scientific rigor, mastering the dye transfer process before color photography gained institutional recognition. Working from Kodachrome transparencies, he created separation negatives for cyan, magenta, and yellow dyes, hand-registering each layer to achieve unprecedented color fidelity. Porter’s dye transfer print distills these textural contradictions—the glossy and the matte, the taut and the yielding—into color calibrations that hover between amber and rust, between ice and warmth. This intimate study operates through proximity rather than panorama, attending to an orchard’s quietude amid seasonal change.
DescriptionImage of a tree with yellow apples and fallen leaves and apples on the ground belowTerms
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