12 Facts About Walter Chappell

Walter Landon Chappell was an American photographer and poet, primarily known for his black and white photography of landscapes, nature, and the human body.

Walter Chappell's father was a train engineer, and was of part-Native American descent, descending from the Umatilla people.

Walter Chappell spent his early life on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon, until the family returned to Portland when he was three years old.

Walter Chappell attended Benson Polytechnic High School, and studied musical composition at the Ellison-White Conservatory of Music.

Walter Chappell was a constant presence in American black and white imagery among other noted photographers Minor White, Alfred Stieglitz, and Edward Weston, with whom he studied.

Walter Chappell was curator of prints and exhibitions at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, from 1957 to 1961 and was affiliated with Aperture Magazine founded by Minor White in 1952.

Walter Chappell left the George Eastman House in 1961, to settle in Wingdale, New York, with noted painter and artist, Nancy Walter Chappell.

Walter Chappell re-located to San Francisco where he became re-acquainted with Minor White and joined a circle of photographers that included Imogen Cunningham and Ansel Adams.

Walter Chappell continued to study Native American ceremonial life and became intimately connected with the Taos Pueblo.

Walter Chappell continued his photographic exploration of electron photography in Hilo, Hawaii, in 1984 after being awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Photographer's Fellowship for the third time.

Walter 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.

Walter Chappell died of lung cancer on August 8,2000, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, aged 75.