The Modern Conservation Movement through Photography

Philip

Eliot

Ansel

In my EA class, we started the semester with a look at environmental art, and how it helps to shape different environmental movements. In one class, we focused heavily on Eliot Porter, Phillip Hyde and Ansel Adams and their photography. Obviously Adams is extremely famous, and his photography is known to be a major catalyst in the modern conservationist movement of the 20th century, but the photography of Philip Hyde and Eliot Porter, are equally important to the conservation movement.

Adams used striking photography of landscape and environmental features to try and instill a sense of urgency and admiration in the American public, that we would feel compelled to try and conserve and save as much of our wild and natural habitat as possible. He worked mostly in California, mostly in Yosemite. His photography is famous everywhere for capturing the voluminous beauty of nature, and inspiring people to take up and champion the cause of nature.

Hyde and Porter worked more in color, and their photography has been very influential for conservationists, because the medium of color - especially when it became available - helped to make nature a bit more exciting and accessible, and thus more easily marketed for preservation and conservation.

Porter and Adams were both members of the Sierra Club, but as Adams stated once "did not want people to view his photographs as propaganda for any cause." In contrast, Hyde said his main motivation for being a photographer was to "share the beauty of nature and encourage the preservation of wild places." In any event, their photography portfolios, collective and individual, were used by many conservation movements, particularly the Sierra Club's led by David Brower, and have been a real, lasting reminder of the beauty and necessity of America's wild places.