4.19.10 Eliot Porter and Glen Canyon

The above image, taken by "atomic age" photographer Eliot Porter in 1961, was one in a series of photographs taken at Glen Canyon in Colorado. In Porter's acclaimed publication, The Place No One Knew, he captures what was lost when the damming of the Colorado River for electricity generation meant flooding Glen Canyon to create Lake Powell. The photo captures the natural beauty of the canyon while promoting an environmental cause. According to Porter, nature was "an undiluted source of pleasure and a reservoir of mysteries," and he wanted to use science and photography to understand and protect it.