When art snobs looked down at photographs, Porterfield fought for respect

By MELISSA DUGAN
Collegian Staff Writer

At Porterfield family gatherings, Wilbur H. Porterfield, a well-known photographer, often refused to take pictures of his relatives.

"He liked photographing things which were strongly natural. He did not want to be associated with portraiture -- he was an artist first and a photographer second," said Neil H. Porterfield, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture and Wilbur H. Porterfield's great-nephew.

Wilbur H. Porterfield's admiration for the natural can be seen in 30 pictures selected from his almost life-long pursuit of photography, lasting from the beginning of the century to his death in 1958. The exhibit of these photographs, titled "Shadows and Reflections: Pictorial Photography by Wilbur H. Porterfield," opens Tuesday at the Palmer Museum of Art and continues until May 30.

In conjunction with this exhibit, Gillian Greenhill Hannum -- a professor of art history at Manhattanville College and a Penn State alumna -- will present a lecture on Wilbur H. Porterfield. The presentation, titled "Wilbur H. Porterfield and His Place in Pictorial Photography," is at 2 p.m. Sunday in Palmer Lipcon Auditorium.

The title of the lecture comes from the quiet, evocative and contemplative mood of Wilbur H. Porterfield's works, Hannum said.

"He has a wonderful sense of light and shade," she said. "He especially liked shooting at sunrise and sunset and was fond of reflections on water."

Nature prevailed even when, at rare times, Wilbur H. Porterfield was coaxed into taking pictures of his family.

Neil H. Porterfield recalled a time when he was a very small child and his great-uncle agreed to take photos of him and his brother -- but only if they were put in a natural setting and were naked.

"Somewhere out there, there's a picture of my brother and I standing in a crick unclothed," Neil H. Porterfield chuckled.

Wilbur H. Porterfield's desire to photograph subjects in their natural states is characteristic of pictorial photography, a popular photography movement that began at the turn of the century.

"Most of the pictorial photographers were amateurs who wanted photography to be taken seriously as a fine art," Hannum said. At that time, photography was seen as more of a technical activity than an aesthetic one.

To accentuate the artistic aspect of taking pictures, the pictorial style is romantic and soft-focused with an emphasis on light, shade and composition.

The diffuse style of the pictorialists is the polar opposite of the sharp focus favored by artists such as the well-known nature photographer Ansel Adams.

Unlike Adams, the pictorialists actually worked to blur the sharp lines of reality in their photographs. Many pictorial photographers would brush the photographic images during their development, an imitation of the brush strokes in a painting.

"The goal of the pictorialists was to have photography recognized -- they were concerned with both art and prominence," Hannum said.

Wilbur H. Porterfield built a strong basis for his prominence, continuing to take pictures until the day before his death at age 85.

Wilbur H. Porterfield was popular during his life and even after his death. The Buffalo Courier-Express published a separate section devoted to his photographs, called "As Porterfield Sees It," for many years during his lifetime. Even after Wilbur H. Porterfield passed away, they continued to publish the section until 1971, changing the title to "As Porterfield Saw It." His work continued to appeal to readers.

"There is something we all can be greatly moved by in his works," said Joyce Robinson, the museum's associate curator. "It's timeless."