Jeffrey Porter

Back

2011-08-30T21:09:00.003-04:00

Back from Alaska. I live in Vermont now with my fiance, Sarah. I'll be here for a while.

2011-02-21T22:34:00.001-05:00

Thinking of Sarah's drawing while in an abandoned house today.

2011-02-20T20:09:00.002-05:00

Sarah listened to the new Radiohead album and drew this for me.

2011-02-06T23:30:00.001-05:00

Summer 2010

2011-02-04T18:11:00.002-05:00

Dear, Sarah

I really like your hair

Summer 2010

2011-02-04T18:06:00.000-05:00

Lilacs. Rochester, Ny

Summer 2010

2011-02-04T18:05:00.002-05:00

Skateboarding in Rochester.

Summer 2010

2011-02-04T18:05:00.001-05:00

Sarah

Summer 2010

2011-02-04T18:03:00.002-05:00

Tucker and my dad lay in the grass, midsummer 2010. Tucker, 9 years old in this picture, passed away a few weeks later. Still missing him quite a bit.

Project III

2011-01-30T13:35:00.001-05:00

Sarah was in town for the weekend to visit me. We wanted to work on a project together so we went to the hardwood store and picked out some wood, drew up an idea and then made it. The design was mostly Sarah's idea, she wanted a box to store letters from me. We used wormy maple and walnut with 1/2 inch finger joints and a tung oil finish. Sarah did the wood burning on the front of the box cause she is awesome at that.

Project II

2011-01-26T18:01:00.004-05:00

This project is sort of a project to allow other projects. A proper work bench can really be the difference between a job well done and mediocre job. I built Sarah's desk on a cardboard lined piece of plywood, it was frustrating, annoying, and ultimately led to some mistakes that could have been avoided. I found the plans for this work bench online and used those as a starting point, making some changes where I saw fit, for instance, using a slatted oak top as opposed to a much more expensive butcherblock-style maple top. I wanted to save money but I also wanted to look at oak every time I went to work on the bench. I think the bench itself should be gorgeous if I want gorgeous projects to come from it.

Building the bench took about three weeks and I was able to learn some new techniques, including pegged mortise and tenon joints in the legs and feet, and finger joints on the corners and on the vise.

Now that the bench is done, its time to build some portfolio boxes, picture frames, and a blanket chest for Sarah and me and our future home.

2011-01-24T22:49:00.000-05:00

Project

2011-01-01T17:47:00.005-05:00

As a gift for Sarah for Christmas I decided to build her a laptop writing desk. She loves to write and draw so having a home for those activities seemed like the right thing for her.

The desk was originally designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 as a means of staying productive while traveling, he ended up using it to write the Declaration of Independence. It is a very interesting design with a lot of detail, including hand cut dovetails and a mortise to flush fit the hinged support stand.

It took me two weeks to make and I opted for Walnut instead of Jefferson's mahogany. Sarah's finished desk was photographed in my grandfather's barn, on top of the pile of raw hardwood where the wood for the desk started.

Woodworking, like working on cars, like darkroom work, like picture framing, feels tremendous and is a comforting break from the subjective nature of photography.

Oh, and she made me a quilt and it is awesome!

we found a hatchet in my grandad's barn

2011-01-01T17:14:00.001-05:00

Memorial

2010-12-16T21:08:00.003-05:00

Motivation

2010-12-14T09:14:00.003-05:00

Its very hard to stay motivated.

This helps.

Places of Sorrow by Gabriele Stabile

Check out more work by this Italian Collective.

2010-11-30T17:43:00.000-05:00

Fox hunt

2010-11-15T09:47:00.006-05:00

Getting excited about the coming season

2010-11-07T22:36:00.001-05:00

2010-11-07T22:28:00.002-05:00

2010-11-04T21:27:00.000-04:00

Landscapes part two

2010-11-04T21:26:00.001-04:00

Landscapes part one

2010-10-28T09:47:00.004-04:00

Grand Tetons

Disappearing act

2010-10-26T21:39:00.002-04:00

I disappear from time to time, as far as internet communication goes- I do not consider myself very internet social- twitter just seems idiotic, facebook is just too much- I do however, keep living outside of the internet, and I keep shooting, at least for myself. My last two weeks:

Halloween haunted house

Blacksmith lessons from my uncle's father.

A subaru engine into my VW vanagon. A two month project is nearly done.

Hartland, Vt - where I used to live.

Ahh, more of this please.

WEST

2010-10-09T11:32:00.003-04:00

Back from the west. Two weeks living out of my buddy's chevy pick up
denver-boulder-rockymountainNP-cheyenne-grandtetonNP-yellowstoneNP-saltlakecity-archesNP-mesaverdeNP-greatsanddunesNP-stlouis-home

Delicate Arch

A lot more photos to come

Lost at Home

2010-09-09T10:08:00.006-04:00

I once read a quote from Trent Parke about the practice of slamming pictures from different projects and periods together to see what comes out of it. I recently tried this with all the "personal" shooting that I have done in the past three years, all of the stuff that was shot when I was just out and about with friends or family, sometimes at school, sometimes at home, with no specific story idea or assignment in mind. The result was something that I had not expected, I saw a theme in all the photos taken, something was there that held them together. I'm calling the project "Lost at Home" and the full edit can be seen here.

A big thanks to Sarah for help with working out the opening text block.

Two days with my Dad's side of the family.

2010-08-09T11:35:00.004-04:00

My dad was born and raised in Brownsville, PA, a small industrial town along the Monongahela River, the economic vein that runs Southeast out of Pittsburgh that gave life to so many small towns in the early 20th century, but then took it away after the Pittsburgh steel industry retired. Like so many of these small river towns, Main St. is now boarded up, and there are little jobs to be had. Walking around town with my dad I know it is hard for him to see his hometown in such a sad state, which might be why I only visit this side of the family every other year or so. I would love to go back and branch out more next time and try to get a feel for what life is like in these small towns, but in the two days I was there this time it was just about seeing my family.

My aunt's yard, five grandchildren in the past six years have transformed their house. Allison, PA.

My father's childhood bed room, now a doll room for my grandma.

Grandma.

Where my dad grew up. Brownsville, PA.

Grandchildren's toys.

My aunt, who after seeing me take this picture moved the checked cloth in front of the underwear. I only see this side of the family once every couple years, we're still bashful around each other.

Fayette City, PA, one of the many cities down river from Pittsburgh that has seen its economy vanish in the wake of the steel industry's decline.

A brutal summer storm.

After the storm cleared.

Also after the storm, at the weekly Strickler County Auction in Fayette City.

My brother at my grandmother's house.

Time to say goodbye.

Summer

2010-07-17T10:14:00.000-04:00

Mom and Dad on my grandad's farm in Clarksburg, MD.

Boy

2010-07-15T12:32:00.001-04:00

More interested in the Ocean

2010-07-15T09:29:00.002-04:00

Hello goodbye, hello goodbye.

Ocean City

2010-07-08T08:59:00.000-04:00

Summer

2010-06-29T22:21:00.001-04:00

Hartland, VT

Summer

2010-06-26T09:41:00.000-04:00

Damascus, MD

Summer

2010-06-25T12:45:00.001-04:00

Anthony. Long Corner, MD

Summer

2010-06-23T17:42:00.001-04:00

Clarksburg, MD

Summer

2010-06-23T12:13:00.000-04:00

Damascus, MD

Summer

2010-06-22T23:53:00.001-04:00

Burlington, VT

Summer

2010-06-22T12:54:00.001-04:00

Greg Gentert

Trent Parke

2010-06-21T21:30:00.006-04:00

Exciting news from the photo book world. One of my absolute favorite photographers, Trent Parke, has published his first book in ten years, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. My wonderful girlfriend ordered me a copy, so out of the edition of 1,000 I know there are at most 999 copies left, but probably much less that that, so order one quick!

Summer

2010-06-21T18:17:00.001-04:00

Summer

2010-06-20T22:35:00.001-04:00

Summer

2010-06-18T09:17:00.002-04:00

Summer

2010-06-16T09:53:00.001-04:00

Let's go summer

2010-06-15T02:39:00.001-04:00

2010-05-18T16:05:00.002-04:00

James leads his brother

Website

2010-05-13T21:26:00.006-04:00

This should do for the time being.

www.jeffreyporterphoto.com

Designed and built by me with the help of a CSS tutorial book.

I have a lot more photos to add, lots of scanning and toning to do in the "family" section especially.

McFlurry

2010-05-05T21:24:00.000-04:00

James teaches what I taught him

2010-05-05T12:22:00.000-04:00

Inside

2010-05-03T21:36:00.001-04:00

I used a flash.

James

2010-04-27T17:33:00.006-04:00

A Friday funeral during public school spring break brought all of the cousins to James' house. James, center, takes on the role of babysitter as his smaller cousins run around in the street.

James and Jason

2010-04-19T22:16:00.004-04:00

Wake up

2010-04-19T13:39:00.001-04:00

Steve and Nicole

Boy

2010-04-16T18:28:00.002-04:00

It was opening day of trout season and his dad took him fishing; he was more interested in digging for clay.

Linwood Ave. 03

2010-04-16T14:31:00.003-04:00

Linwood Ave. _02

2010-04-15T12:27:00.004-04:00

James and I traded skateboard for soccer ball. He learned how to skate as I remembered how to juggle a soccer ball. Two days later I came back to visit James again and I noticed the sidewalk, colored by two girls who were visiting their aunt and uncle on the same street where James lives. They left that night to go back to their home so they wrote "good bye james." James told me that the girls have a crush on him and they had been watching us from the window as we were playing in the street, hence the skateboard in the upper right.

New York City

2010-04-14T22:31:00.002-04:00

Linwood Ave.

2010-04-14T22:17:00.001-04:00

George Bridge

2010-04-07T20:41:00.000-04:00

Easter Morning

2010-04-05T17:29:00.003-04:00

Waterford, PA

SPRING

2010-04-01T16:14:00.000-04:00

Nature!

2010-03-31T19:07:00.002-04:00

Cumming Nature Park - 3/31/2010

winter_13

2010-03-30T22:04:00.002-04:00

somewhere between damascus and erie

this is Dallas

Fish_01

2010-03-22T21:56:00.001-04:00

the beginnings of a project

Travel_01

2010-03-22T10:31:00.001-04:00

photos coming soon.

Winter_12

2010-03-17T19:48:00.000-04:00

home

Winter_11

2010-03-15T13:49:00.000-04:00

Winter_10

2010-03-12T12:43:00.001-05:00

Winter_09

2010-03-10T11:37:00.000-05:00

Winter_08

2010-03-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Winter_07

2010-03-08T10:35:00.003-05:00

Winter_06

2010-03-06T17:41:00.004-05:00

Winter_05

2010-02-19T13:02:00.001-05:00

2/14/10

Winter_04

2010-02-16T13:12:00.001-05:00

Winter_03

2010-02-11T12:25:00.001-05:00

Throwback

2010-02-08T21:28:00.001-05:00

dad

Winter_02

2010-02-02T21:03:00.001-05:00

Ocie

granddad

Winter_01

2010-01-26T13:17:00.002-05:00

Christmas2009

2010-01-13T13:02:00.014-05:00

My dad sits in the hotel room in Arkadelphia, AK, playing with a toy that I had bought as a gift for my girlfriend's sister. He arrived the night before and in a fit of excitement to get home we left right from the airport at 10pm and almost made it to Little Rock before we got too tired. He was like an angel swooping down to rescue me from the loneliness that plagued my time in Dallas, and from that point on I felt like I was home; its the strange feeling that a loved one can bring- no matter where you are, if you're together, it feels like home.
Sarah showed up a few days after I made it back to Maryland; we explored the rafters of my grandfather's old barn where my dad keeps the planks of cherry that his father had given him. With two feet of snow in the forecast, Sarah and I were not able to drive back to Erie, PA to see her family. Snow like that comes to Maryland very rarely; I did not want to miss it. We played in the snow like children. Tucker, my old red dog, now blind from the insulin shots that he gets everyday for his diabetes, seems to be fading away more and more as time goes by and I wonder how much longer we'll have him around, but on that day he still had the spirit and love to find Sarah in his void and give her a kiss. My brother yawns on the way home after a long Christmas day and my parents hold each other in our foyer for a while. I remember the inescapable feeling that as we all get older these Christmas memories become numbered and it made me afraid to move, afraid to walk away from it all for even a moment for fear that I would miss something.

Because photographers have portfolios

2009-12-12T03:00:00.007-05:00

2009-12-04T01:22:00.002-05:00

untitled

2009-12-03T00:45:00.008-05:00

The girl on the far right of the photograph, Mia, drew me a picture.

one more month

2009-11-15T21:47:00.003-05:00

July 4th - Ithaca, NY
Photo by Ian freaking Ray.

Yesterday's

2009-11-11T18:57:00.000-05:00

Almost

2009-11-06T19:24:00.003-05:00

close, but not quite.

Tv

2009-11-04T01:03:00.004-05:00

Between sets of the new ABC drama, "The Deep End," actress Leah Pipes knits a scarf while Tina Majorino gets her make up touched up near the end of an all day studio session on Tuesday, November 2nd at Las Calinas Studio in Irving, Texas.

one more

2009-11-02T00:06:00.003-05:00

Another one from my box of negatives.

This one also from the Lilac Festival- a running boy visits again.

Halfway

2009-10-30T21:13:00.002-04:00

Six weeks down, six more to go.

Summer part III

2009-10-28T23:25:00.002-04:00

Waterford, PA

Summer part II

2009-10-28T21:58:00.004-04:00

I was driving... on the way to the beach for a camp out.

There were only 3

2009-10-27T23:12:00.006-04:00

Motivation

2009-10-26T17:16:00.004-04:00

Trent Parke shot sports for ten years- a powerful encouragement as I prepare for my next high school volleyball game.

Influence

2009-10-26T15:42:00.006-04:00

© Mikhael Subotzky

It would be more accurate to call Subotzky a major influence, his use of multiple formats to effectively tell a story, with each format still bearing his compositional signature, his time spent on a single theme, and most importantly, his desire to tell a story that is near his home. I will never understand why young photographers feel the need to travel the world to create work when they can find powerful stories near their own homes, perhaps it's because contest judges get boners for pictures from third world countries, I can't be sure, but Subotzky is an example of how powerful work can be made at home.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra

2009-10-25T19:05:00.004-04:00

A pleasant reminder of why I chose to be a photojournalist; I get the privilege to be in some incredible places. Hearing world class musicians warm up right in front of me- my heart swells up, reaches out through the lens and grabs as much as it can to try and remember that beautiful moment.

Tubas

2009-10-19T17:23:00.005-04:00

The first photo I have taken down here in Dallas that I have been proud to stand behind.

cutline: Sharing their seats with their large instruments, the Eagle Band tuba section sings the "Pokemon Song," a pre performance ritual for them, while on one of the 18 buses that carries the 600+ member Allen Eagle Band from the practice field to the Allen High football stadium on Friday, October 16, 2009. (Jeffrey Porter/Dallas Morning News)

Summer Slides

2009-10-18T17:39:00.001-04:00

Ocean City, MD

New Camera

2009-10-18T01:36:00.006-04:00

Lilacs

2009-10-04T21:19:00.005-04:00

Two photographs from the Lilac Festival in the Spring. For the first time in months I have access to a scanner!

I'm not sure how much time was in between these photographs, but I do know the distance-they were at least 300 feet apart. The boy in white really likes to run through the lilac bushes, maybe I should have spent my day following him around.

Run run run

2009-09-27T02:35:00.004-04:00

Not really my type of picture but I couldn't help but think that the kid didn't even know what the word or its intended message on his shirt meant. The kid's father, sitting far too far to the left, had a similarly clever shirt on.

"Hey son, I got a shirt for you."

I arrived in Dallas last Sunday. Its been a tough week. About two months into my last internship I made a comment to a professor about how being a photographer is sort of like trying to take up a running (or biking!) habit. If you are out of shape it is very hard to do it, it can take weeks before you don't cramp up and feel out of breath almost immediately and its very easy to give up, but then you get to that point where it is not hard anymore, it just feels good and it becomes harder to live without it.

This week I shot a bunch of shit, but I just have to keep reminding myself that I am just out of shape- I shot pictures of houses for the real estate section of a D.C. publication all summer- by the time the day was done I wanted nothing to do with a camera. For the first time in my life a camera became a simple tool instead of a graceful instrument. Now, finally, the camera is becoming exciting again.

2009-09-21T00:51:00.002-04:00

Nashville and Memphis on the way to Dallas.

Too much time in Memphis, not nearly enough time in Nashville.

Bike

2009-09-07T11:16:00.003-04:00

I built a bike! Its nice to have something to ride around town but the real treat is the building. This summer has sort of shown itself to be a detachment from any sort of craftsmanship. Building this bike brought me back to something real for at least a little while.

My summer job, while it requires a camera, does not require eyes. Dallas will be a welcome change.