Walter Landon Chappell (June 8, 1925 – August 8, 2000) was an American photographer and poet, primarily known for his black and white photography of landscapes, nature, and the human body.

Early life

Chappell was born in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

in 1925, the son of a

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically b ...

mother who was a singer with the Portland Symphony Choir. His father was a train engineer, and was of part- Native American descent, descending from the

Umatilla people The Umatilla are a Sahaptin-speaking Native American tribe who traditionally inhabited the Columbia Plateau region of the northwestern United States, along the Umatilla and Columbia rivers."Umatilla," in Barbara A. Leitch, ''A Concise Dictionar ...

. Chappell spent his early life on the

Umatilla Indian Reservation The Umatilla Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It was created by The Treaty of June 9, 1855 between the United States and members of the Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes. It lies in nort ...

in northeastern Oregon, until the family returned to Portland when he was three years old. Chappell attended

Benson Polytechnic High School Benson Polytechnic High School is a technical public high school in the Portland Public Schools district. It is temporarily located in Portland's Lents neighborhood while a renovation project is underway at its campus in the Central Eastside ...

, and studied musical composition at the

Ellison-White Conservatory of Music The Ellison-White Conservatory of Music was a music school, music conservatory in Portland, Oregon, United States, associated with the Ellison-White Lyceum (classical), Lyceum and Chautauqua Association. The conservatory advertised itself as "answe ...

Career

Chappell was a constant presence in

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

black and white imagery among other noted photographers Minor White,

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

, and

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

, with whom he studied. Chappell was curator of prints and exhibitions at the

George Eastman House The George Eastman Museum, also referred to as ''George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film'', the world's oldest museum dedicated to photography and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened to the public in 1949 in ...

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

from 1957 to 1961 and was affiliated with Aperture Magazine founded by Minor White in 1952. Chappell left the

in 1961, to settle in

Wingdale, New York Wingdale is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Dover in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census. The community is in southeastern Dutchess County, in the southern part ...

with noted painter and artist, Nancy Chappell (then Nancy Barrett Dickinson). Soon after building their home, a fire destroyed their house and nearly all of Chappell's photographic work to date, including photographic negatives and their corresponding prints. In the early 1960s, he was a co-founder of a group of seven photographers who called themselves "The Heliographers": Chappell, Paul Caponigro,

Carl Chiarenza Carl Chiarenza (born 1935) is an American art photographer. He works predominantly in black and white photography. From 1979, he has worked entirely in the studio, creating abstract compositions using materials such as torn paper and aluminum foi ...

, William Clift, Marie Cosindas, Nicholas Dean, Paul Petricone. Although most of them were affiliated with the Carl Siembad Gallery in Boston, Chappell proposed to open a gallery in New York City that he ran for the group: The Heliographers' Gallery Archive opened its doors in 1963 at 859 Lexington Avenue.Contemporary Photographer, summer 1963 The gallery closed in 1965. Chappell re-located to San Francisco where he became re-acquainted with Minor White and joined a circle of photographers that included

Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (; April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to t ...

and

Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...

. After recuperating from tuberculosis in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, he studied with the photographer

Winter Prather Winter Phillips Prather (1926-2005) was a commercial and fine art photographer who worked in Denver, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico from the 1940s to the 1970s. Early life and education Prather was born in Pontiac, Michigan on May 13, 1926 to Louise ...

, a photographic technician in the printing process. Walter Chappell traveled extensively during his career. Following a relocation to

Big Sur, California Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

, where he was commissioned by

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

to photograph

Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

, and

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...

, his growing interest in the imagery of the human form in nature and experimental film-making instigated a move to

Taos, New Mexico Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Initially founded in 1615, it was intermittently occupied until its formal establishment in 1795 by Nuevo México Governor Fernando Cha ...

, to photograph the human form and the expansive landscape of the Southwest. He continued to study Native American ceremonial life and became intimately connected with the Taos Pueblo. After still another move to San Francisco where he lived from 1970–74, he began experimental work with electron photography: high voltage/high frequency electron imagery of living plants. ''Fern'', in te collection of the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single col ...

, is an example of these electron photographs. This work was presented in his Metaflora Portfolio in 1980. Chappell continued his photographic exploration of electron photography in

Hilo, Hawaii Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. It is the fourth-largest settlement i ...

in 1984 after being awarded the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

Photographer's Fellowship for the third time (1977, 1980, 1984). Chappell moved to his final residence in the remote village of El Rito, New Mexico in 1987 and from there continued to exhibit, lecture, give workshops and make field trips. In 1989 he was given access to and use of one of the famous 20x24" Polaroid view-cameras. Chappell has a significant representation of works in collections at: the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

); the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House (Rochester, New York);

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

(

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

); Museum of Art,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

(

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

); Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studio (

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...

) among many others.

Death

Chappell died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

on August 8, 2000 in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

, aged 75.

References

External links

walterchappell.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chappell, Walter 1925 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American photographers Benson Polytechnic High School alumni Ellison-White Conservatory of Music alumni People from Taos, New Mexico People from El Rito, Rio Arriba County, New Mexico Artists from Portland, Oregon