Allan Porter (April 29, 1934 – October 5, 2022) was an American Swiss photographer, journalist, editor, designer, and art director best known for his role as editor of Camera. His eye for talent helped launch the career of many now-renowned photographers, namely Josef Koudelka, Stephen Shore, and Sarah Moon amongst many others.
Early life and education
'Holiday' magazine cover April 1953. Photo: Robert Capa
Allan Porter was the elder of three brothers born to parents of Russian-Jewish ancestry living in Philadelphia.:15 After attending Stokely Elementary School then Blaine Junior High School, Porter's father wanted him to prepare for a business education, but one of his earliest hobbies, collecting 19th-century circus posters, already showed a propensity for art and graphic design.:16
After graduating from Central High school in 1952, Allan Porter enrolled as a scholarship student in the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, and studied graphic design, painting, photography and art history under teachers such as Franz Kline. One of his study projects was to compose a cover for "Holiday" magazine (a magazine that he would later work for): the work was rejected by his teacher, but an amazingly similar cover appeared on the newsstands one month later. During his education, he found employment in a darkroom, and through the same lab had his first exposure to lithography techniques.:17 One of his 1953 photography experiments resulted a definite fascination with that medium as well, a time from which he participated in several expositions, winning first prize at the Philadelphia Exhibition of Industrial Photography in 1954.:27
His studies were interrupted by army service from 1955 in German Aschaffenburg and Stuttgart; when his military service ended, he completed his last half year of studies and graduated from the Philidalphia Museum with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He would return to Offenbach to attend the typography courses of Hans Schmidt: inspired by his teacher's work with tapestry-workshop owners Gret Mohrhardt und Inge Richter, Allan weaved a first "Tower of Babel" tapestry in 1857, which would be shown at an exhibition for of former Philadelphia Museum School students one year later.:20
Early career
Art Directors' Club award-winning Madison Avenue magazine cover Photo: Allan Porter
After unsuccessfully trying to find work in New York, Allan Porter returned to Phillidalphia to work at "Holiday" magazine between 1957 and 1959, and edited the August edition of the latter year practically on his own: this was his first experience as editor, and enacting his idea to present landscapes with no people for that issue led to his encounter with photographers Brett Weston and Ansel Adams,:22 and Jack Kerouac and Truman Capote, writers for the magazine then.
All while serving as art director for Seventeen magazine from 1959, Porter took trips to Offenbach to complete two more tapestries, "City of Non Dwellers" and "Four Seraphim Guarding the Cross", and would return yet again to complete "Kedosheem Tehehyoo" one year later.:28 But, still in 1959, Allan presented his works for the first time in a group exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, was included in an American Federation of Arts-sponsored group tour, and again in a solo exhibition, accompanied by his etching and lithography work, at America's location at 106 West 56th Street, New York City, America House. He also worked for Madison Avenue, an alternative magazine, that year, and would win the Art Direction and Photo prize from the Art Directors Club the year after.
At the same time as the above, creative agent Emilio d'Antonio (representing Andy Warhol, John Cage and Robert Frank, amongst others) presented Allan to architect George Nelson, and through him began work on pavilions, displays and presentations for the 1959 American National Exhibition: with Charles and Ray Eames he designed presentations and media supports for Buckminster Fuller's 'Dome' project, and the same again for their "Glimpses of America" projections of 2,200 images onto seven large screens. Lastly, under the direction of Edward Steichen and the Museum of Modern Art, he designed the supports for the "Family of Man" exhibit. After a six-month convalescence period because of a motorcycle accident,:31 and still working with Nelson, he worked extensively on the design and presentation of the synergetics "City of Tomorrow" pavilion for the 1962 Seattle "Century 21 Exhibition".:31
Camera, begun by engineer Adolf Herz and book-publisher C. J. Bucher in June 1922, was an endeavour to take photography beyond its then-utilitarian limitations and build appreciation for it as an art-form. Bucher's wife, Alice, who took over the publisher role after her husband's stroke in 1941, tried a series of editors after Herz had stopped editing the magazine from 1947, but when the magazine found itself in difficulty in the mid-1960s, she thought that Porter's insightfulness and 'foreign touch' would bring a fresh start to the magazine. First appearing in December 1965 as guest editor, Allan Porter became editor in chief of Camera from the following year. In addition to re-looking the publication, Porter began a campaign to increase readership through subscriptions, namely those of libraries and other international institutions, and negotiated an increased US circulation. From its 1965 circulation of 9,300, Porter had promised an 8% increase in readership, but it had already increased by 20% at the end of his first year.
Porter helped launch the career of other photographers, namely Josef Koudelka (1974), Stephen Shore, and Sarah Moon. Porter's Camera was also the first to showcase the experimental work of other photographers, such as Richard Avedon's 'Jacob Israel Avedon' series on his dying father that appeared in November 1974.
After a successful run of 16 years, the last issue of Camera appeared on 1 December 1981.
Exhibitions
Solo
1955, Philadelphia, Gilded Cage Gallery, Allan Porter. Paintings & Photographs.
1984, Zurich, Nikon Gallery, Allan Porter and friends in photography.
Group
1954, Philadelphia, American Museum of Photography, Industrial Photography.
Foundation for Photography Switzerland: 10 years (1981 – special edition of Camera).
André Gelpke "Sex-Theatre" (1981 – introduction)
Mexico: An Exhibition of Photographs (1990).
Other works
Photography, 1839–1972; Camera, 1922–1972 (1972)
Photographis '71: International Advertising Photography (1972).
Photography, an Iconographic, Chronological History (1972).
A Concise Chronology of Instant Photography 1947–1974 (1975).
Open photography: An Exhibition of Work Selected by Allan Porter and Keith Arnatt (1976 – with Keith Arnatt and the Midland Group (Nottingham, England)).
Autoportrait (1978)
Exploration of a Medium (1978 – Polaroid, Amsterdam publication with other authors).
↑Olonetzky 2007, p.19, Ein Amerikaner in Luzern: Allan Porter und Camera—eine Biografie: "Drucktechniken also und Fotografie werden erneut wichtig und sie erhalten noch mehr Bedeutung, als die Grafikabteilung der Schule die Aufgabe aus- schreibt, für die literarische Reisezeitschrift «Holiday Magazine» ein Titelbild zu entwerfen; das Thema ist Paris. «Als alle Vorschläge an der Wand hingen, kam der Lehrer zu meinem Vorschlag und sagte: ‹Hier sehen wir ein Beispiel, wie man es nicht machen darf! ‹Holiday› würde so etwas nie publizieren: eine fast leere Seite mit einem kleinen Bild des Arc de Triomphe und dazu die Schrift in zwei, drei Farben.› Ich entgegnete, dass es auch ein Foto sein könnte, nicht ein Aquarell, wie ich es vorgeschlagen hatte. Es war ja nur eine Skizze. Aber: ‹Nein! So etwas kommt nicht in Frage!› Ich muss sagen, ich war nicht nur belei- digt, ich war gedemütigt. Es schien die schlechteste Arbeit zu sein, die ich je gemacht hatte. Doch: Einen Monat später stellte sich heraus, dass ‹Holiday› tat- sächlich eine Titelseite produziert hatte wie in meinem Vorschlag: Eine Foto- grafie des Arc de Triomphe, dazu eine gestreifte Schrift, allerdings nicht in Rot, Blau, Weiss, wie ich das vorgeschlagen hatte."
Porter, Allan; Jutzi, Alan; Photography Museum (Los Angeles Calif.) (1981). Los Angeles documentary project 1981. Luzern, Switzerland: C.J. Bucher]: [Printed through the courtesy of Camera. OCLC7806163.
Porter, Allan; Fondation suisse pour la photographie (1981). Stiftung für die Photographie Schweiz: 10 Jahre = Fondation pour la photographie Suisse: 10 années = Fondazione della fotografia Svizzera: 10 anni = Foundation for photography Switzerland: 10 years (in French). Luzern: C.J. Bucher. OCLC718606837.
Centro de Estudos de Fotografia (Coimbra Portugal); Porter, Allan (1990). Mexico: an exhibition of photographs = Mexico: uma exposição de fotografias. OCLC78655688.
Porter, Allan (1972a). Photography, 1839–1972: Camera, 1922–1972. Lucerne: Bucher. OCLC638095196.
Porter, Allan (1972b). Photography, an iconographic, chronological history. Place of publication not identified: publisher not identified. OCLC22040941.
Porter, Allan (1975). A concise chronology of instant photography 1947–1974 (nineteen hundred and forty-seven to nineteen hundred and seventy-four). LUCERNE: BUCHER. OCLC1075274761.
Open Photography; Porter, Allan; Arnatt, Keith; Midland Group (Nottingham England), eds. (1976). Open photography: exhibition of work selected by Allan Porter and Keith Arnatt: 8 May – 5 June 1976. Nottingham: Midland Group Gallery. OCLC913259066.
Porter, Allan (1973). "The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis, printed directly from original photogravures, 1903–1925". Camera. 52 (12). OCLC84693130.
