Biography

Samuel Portera was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and raised in the marshes and bayous of St Bernard Parish. Portera, a self-taught photographer, discovered his passion for photography fifteen years ago and since that time he rarely leaves home without his camera. Most well known for series of post-Katrina landscapes, which were self published in After The Water, his latest series, Deadwater, focuses on Louisiana's wetlands and its unique beauty. Portera uses a vintage Brass lens to lend a sense antiquity to his photographs. This works serves as a historical and harmonious impression of a landscape that he believes to be threatened.

Portera's work has appeared in Photography magazines, including B&W Magazine and Shots, and has been featured in the following exhibitions in New Orleans in the last two years: Louisiana Vision/Re-Vision, Rituals and Revelries and Toy Stories. Together with Jennifer Shaw and Eric Julian, Portera's work will be part of a group show at SOHO PHOTO in New York in September 2008.