Eliot Porter; Pioneer Nature Photographer

Eliot Porter, 88, a color photography pioneer best known for his large-format books published by the Sierra Club. Porter was first recognized for his photographs of birds, and perhaps best known for “Birds of North America--A Personal Selection.” Two books featuring his work, “Mexican Celebration” and “Nature’s Chaos,” were released last week. It was while in the field photographing birds that he first became interested in the plant formations and land all about him. He went on to illustrate such books as “The Flow of Wildness,” about the Galapagos Islands, and “The Tree Where Man Was Born,” about Africa. Porter, whose work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, donated hundreds of prints to the University of New Mexico and the Fine Arts Museum in Santa Fe. He took his last photograph in 1986, the year his illness was diagnosed as Lou Gehrig’s disease. On Friday in Santa Fe, N.M.