ARTIST PROFILE
Dena Porter
A Keen Eye Drawing Inspiration From The Vineyard
By Abby Remer
“When I shoot, it’s an endorphin rush. I know what I’m looking for... Or I don’t know, and I’m just loving the exploration. It’s the reason to get up in the morning.” So says photographer Dena Porter, who has drawn inspiration from the Vineyard and New York City over the last 25 years.
Porter’s art engages both our eyes and minds. Throughout her many explorations, Porter’s vision creates captivating images, whether they be incisive portraits, reflective cityscapes, or evocative images of the island she calls home.
Although art is essential to who she is today, Porter did not have ready access to it as a child. Growing up in public housing in Brooklyn during the 1970s, the schools were slashing arts program-ming. And with no prior background in art, she felt too self-conscious to pursue it as a novice at Wesleyan University, where she attended college.
A few years after graduation, Porter returned to school to earn a master’s and PhD in sociology. She did this at night, while working full time at Yale, conducting academic research in the School of Management, and working on urban revitalization projects in the Vice President’s office. Porter went on to an illustrious career focused on helping urban youth stay in school and graduate. “That was important to me on a personal level because, having grown up in public housing, I wanted to live a much different life. So, it was about how to help kids get through.”
However, a single incident altered the course of Porter’s life while she was the executive director of the New York City site of the Posse Foundation, which trains promising young leaders from diverse backgrounds by providing full tuition, merit based, leadership scholar-ships to partner colleges and universities. By chance, while attending a friend’s wedding, one of the photographers didn’t show up. “The father of the groom said, ‘Here’s my camera, can you take a couple of pictures?’ It was a full-frame Canon; it was a beast of a camera. I didn’t know anything about how to shoot it. I was only able to figure out how to set it to automatic. It turned out, they used 23 of the photos from my rookie shoot.”
The experience left Porter with a revelation that has served her well throughout her photography career. “Even though I had never taken photographs of an event like that before, it was more fun than scary. I knew the family well, so I gained entrée and photographed them getting ready as well as the wedding itself, and they loved that. The professional crew didn’t get those intimate images. I took from that experience that if I could gain a subject’s trust, I could more easily get the pictures.”
However, Porter laughs, “Although it was an ah-hah moment, I didn’t follow up.” But her husband did and gave Porter a Canon point-and-shoot. “It was tiny, but I could play with more settings than an entry-level camera. That’s when I started doing street photography, experimenting with capturing light and reflections in buildings.”
In 2016, Porter transitioned to a full-frame digital camera, photographing whenever she could squeeze it in. “I would take photos before and after work as well as on my lunch breaks. When you are on Wall Street or in Times Square, there is always a lot of subject matter.”
The black-and-white reflective work of this period reveals Porter’s fascination with light and reflections in glass. She engages our gaze as we discern the window itself, the reflec-tions it carries, and what we can see behind the pane. She says, “I’m fascinated by the things we see beyond the first glance.” Likewise, looking into windows harkens back to her childhood fascination with seeing how “the other half lives.”
During this period, Porter had, as she says, an incredible experience. An assistant for Project Runway judge and fashion designer Christian Siriano gave her backstage and press box access to photograph his shows. “The more opportunities I got to shoot under pressure, the more comfortable I felt.”
Photographs such as “Should I Take the Express?” and “Got Help?” (page 52) exemplify Porter’s keen ability to capture a decisive moment. In the former, a well-dressed woman stands pondering, her fingertip to her chin, as to whether to take the incoming subway, while in the latter, a homeless gentleman leans dejectedly against the mailbox in front of the Giorgio Armani Madison Avenue boutique on a sweltering day.
Thirsty for professional training, Porter started participating in workshops in both New York City and the Vineyard, where she and her husband had owned a house since the late 1990s. By 2016, the desire to pursue photography full-time became clear. “I thought, this is the time to walk away from education. I had done all that I wanted in the field, and I could leave at the peak. When I was thinking about what my next chapter would look like, it seemed like the opportunity to dive in.”
Porter’s first exhibition on the Vineyard emerged from her studies with renowned Island photographer Alison Shaw. Among the works were reflections seen in nature, as seen in her “Morning Dew” series. Here, we look down at thousands of shimmering pockets of water caught in a spider’s web, creating an intriguing abstract composition that captivates our gaze as we get lost in the details. “Alison took us to a botanical garden in Maine. I came across all these bubbles in these spider webs. I stayed there for the whole two hours. I was transfixed. I went into a meditative state. Alison gave me the confidence to explore and define what I wanted to capture in my photography.”
Starting in 2018, the Martha’s Vineyard Times hired Porter to begin working as a freelance photographer, which allows her to regularly photograph cultural events, news stories, and profiles of individuals. Her talent for putting her subjects at ease and capturing the perfect moment shines through in her portraits. You can hear Chef Deon’s throaty laugh echo from his upturned face. He leans back comfortably against the black stove, dressed in a bright, starched-white chef’s jacket that identifies him as one of the Vineyard’s distinguished creators of Caribbean and American cuisine. With eyes closed, we are transported by the sweet tones of Carole Vandal’s flute playing, as she honors her Wampanoag culture on Indigenous Peoples’ Day at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. The music flows directly from her lips to the microphone and into our space, connecting us to the sacred moment. Head bowed, wearing a traditional embroidered Kutuni (Huichol man’s shirt), we see Jose Sanabria at the Aquinnah Cultural Center. Arm raised high, he lifts a chalice in reverent prayer for the ancestors who have passed, during his Day of the Dead celebration.
Speaking about her portraits, Porter shares, “Looking at them reminds me of the specialness of the Vineyard and the many ways we build community and how people share their talents with us. They remind me of special moments on the Island that not everyone gets to see.”
Considering the difference between photographing for the paper and shooting for herself, Porter reflects, “I have more time to think about how I want to shoot if it’s for myself.” Sometimes, she goes out with a specific focus, like the sunsets in Menemsha, or Porter decides to walk out the door and see what she can find. “If I’m driving around, my camera is usually in the car. If I see something, oftentimes I pull over to investigate an opportunity.”
Being engaged in her community is important to Porter for her growth as an artist. She says, “In the last year, I’ve felt compelled to create an informal discussion group open to all Island-based photographers. I was inspired by Michael Johnson’s Photographer’s Salon, which takes place at Featherstone during the summer. I wanted to start something that would bring photographers together in the off-season to share their knowledge and beautiful images. It’s a joy to see the Island through their eyes, which I’m convinced is making me a better photographer.”
Currently, Porter’s days are filled with work for the Martha’s Vineyard Times, private clients, and pursuing her fine art photography. But with her thirst for exploration and new knowledge, she has also been experimenting with drawing, watercolor painting, and rug hooking. Intrigued by the colors and textures of the latter, she says, “I think of rug hooking as painting with wool.” Porter is drawn to patterns inspired by the work of Piet Mondrian, Gustav Klimt, and Vincent van Gogh. “I am aware of the ways that the camera can flatten things, so I’ve become interested in textures and different ways of seeing depth.”
Porter continues, “Delving into these various art forms has been so much fun – an experiment – and it influences my photography. For my fine artwork, I’m setting up my shots to emphasize certain colors more than ever. My exploration of different media resonates back to my photography. I’m really enjoying learning about the artistic expressions I didn’t get to study as a kid growing up. Now, I feel even more excited by the images I can create with my camera.”
For more information, visit: @denaporter on Instagram and www.denaporterphotography.com