A skilled photographer of nature, landscapes, and the body, Walter Landon Chappell studied alongside Alfred Stieglitz, Minor White, and Edward Weston in the 1940s and 1950s. The influence of these artists is most visible in Chappell’s use of black-and-white photography and his interest in organic shapes. Chappell spent his early life on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeastern Oregon until the age of 3. He studied composition at the Ellison-White Conservatory of Music in Portland, Oregon, and from 1957 to 1961 served as curator of prints and exhibitions at the George Eastman House. Chappell won the National Endowment for the Arts Photographer's Fellowship three times, in 1977, 1980, and 1984.