Edward Weston
"Weston is, in the real sense, one of the
few creative artists of today. He
has recreated the matter-forms and forces
of nature; he has made these forms
eloquent of the fundamental unity of the
work. His work illuminates man’s
inner journey toward perfection of the
spirit." --Ansel Adams, Date Unknown
Edward Weston (1886-1958) may seem
like he was a confused man in trying to find
his photographic goal(s). Just
like many other photographers, both of his time
and now, he strove to find
what truly satisfied his talent and the acceptance of
himself. He generated
something for all photographers. This was success and
recognition as a "grand
master" of twentieth century photography. This was a
legacy that tells an
interesting tale; it tells a tale of a thousand plus
successful and loved
photographs, a daily journal, and a life with its ups and
downs and broad
dimensions. He was born in Highland Park, Illinois, and thus he
was an
American photographer. His mother died when he was five, possibly the
reason
for his skipping out of his schooling. At the age of sixteen (1902),
his
father bought him a Kodak box camera (Bull’s-Eye No. 2). Soon he was
saving
money to buy a better 5x& camera with a tripod. Taking
photographs
interested and obsessed him. He wrote, "I needed no friends now.
. .Sundays my
camera and I would take long car-rides into the country. . ."
In 1906, two
things happened. First, a submission of his was printed in the
magazine Camera
and Darkroom. This photograph was called simply "Spring".
Secondly, he moved
to California to work as a surveyor for San Pedro, Los
Angeles and Salt Lake
Railroad. From that time on, his interests lied in
everything that was
unorthodox (astrology, the occult, nudism, vegetarianism,
etc.). Maybe he never
was much of an orthodox type man or photographer. He
went back to Illinois for
several months to attend the Illinois College of
Photography. The inspiration
behind this was to show his girlfriend, a
daughter of a wealthy land-owner that
he’d make money for them. He then
headed back to California for good. This
lead to marriage in 1909 and to two
sons soon afterwards. During this time,
Weston also became the founding
member of the Camera Pictorialists of Los
Angeles. 1911: Began a portrait
studio in Tropico, California. This studio would
stay open until 1922. Also
1911: He started writing articles that were published
in magazines. One of
these magazines was called American Photographer. His third
and fourth sons
were born in 1916 and 1919. Weston had always enjoyed
photography as an art,
but, in 1915, his visit to the San Francisco Panama
Pacific Exhibition
began a series of events that would lead him to a
renouncement of
pictorialism. At the exhibition, he viewed abstract paintings.
These
caused him to vow to capture "the physical quality of the objects
he
photographed with the sharpest truthfulness and exactitude". Thus began
a
dissatisfaction with his own work. In 1922, he traveled to Ohio and
took
photographs of the Armco Steel Plant and then went to New York. There he
met
Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Charles Sheck and Georgia O’Keefe.
After that,
he renounced pictorialism all together. He often traveled to
Mexico during the
1920s, and his photographs included nudes. One of these
nudes, named Tina
Modotti, would turn into his own personal love affair,
breaking up his marriage.
He made many photographs in Mexico. Some were
published in the book Idols Behind
Altars by Anita Brenner. During this
time, he also began to photograph
seashells, vegetables and nudes. In 1929,
his first New York exhibit occurred at
the Alma Reed’s Delphic Studios
Gallery and later showed at Harvard Society of
Contemporary Arts. His
photographs were shown along with the likes of Walker
Evans, Eugene
Atget, Charles Sheeler, Alfred Stieglitz, and many others. In
1932, he
became a Charter member, along with Ansel Adams, of the "Group
f/64" Club.
The club was also founded that same year. The goal of this club
was to
"secure maximum image sharpness of both foreground and distance".
In
1934, Weston vowed to make only unretouched portraits. He strived to
be as far
away from pictorialism as he could. In 1935, he initiated the
Edward Weston
Print of the Month Club. He offered photographs for ten
dollars each. In 1937,
he was awarded the first Guggenheim fellowship. In
1940, a book called
California and the West featured his photographs and
the text of Charis Wilson
his new wife (not the nude, Tina Modotti). In 1941,
Weston was commissioned by
the Limited Editions Club to illustrate a new
edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves
of Grass. Weston started suffering from
Parkinson’s disease in 1946. That same
year the Museum of Modern Art in New
York City featured a retrospective of his
work; three hundred prints were on
display. To sort of sign-off from
photographing, Weston went to his favorite
photographing spot at Point Lobos.
There he would take his last
photographs (1948). For the next ten years, he
supervised his two sons in the
printing of Edward Weston life works. Also, in
1952, he published a
Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio. He died in 1958 at his home
in Carmel. From
his famous studies of the green pepper to his favorite spots at
Point
Lobos, Weston was mainly concerned in photographing nature. That’s why
his
photographs encompassed still-lifes, seashells, tree stumps, eroded
rocks,
female nudes, landscapes, and other natural forms. His 1936
compilation of
photographs of California sand dunes is considered by many to
be his finest
work. Many feel he brought "regeneration" to photography, and
maybe he did.
It seems, whether he liked it or not, that pictorialism
never left him. No
matter how sharp and truthful his photographs became or
were, they seemed to
always have a pictorial feel. Maybe someday I’ll read
through the daily
journal he kept, called Daybooks. It was published, most of
it after his death.
Maybe then I could get a feel for what Point Lobos
meant and what the shapes of
the vegetables, seashells, and the rolling dunes
meant. Maybe I could understand
his obsession with female nudes and their
shapes and his brief period of
industrial scenes. The tale is told. We’ve
seen the photographs, few among
thousands. We’ve seen the broad dimensions
that encompassed his life. We’ve
also seen the journal, his daily "pouring
out". It is indeed a true legacy,
a legacy that lives on through the sharp,
up close-and personal photographs.
Bibliography
"Biography of
Edward Weston". (1995-99). Internet
(http://www.photo
collect.com/bios/weston.html). Photo Collect. Layout and
design by Panorama
Point. Edward Weston: With an Essay by R.H. Cravens.
(1988). 1997 Edition.
Aperture Foundation, Inc. "Weston, Edward
(1886-1958)". (2000). Internet
(http://www.orsillo
.com/photographers/edward.htm). Orsillo of Nottingham, New
Hampshire.
"Weston, Edward: American, 1886-1958". (1986). Internet
(http://www.
masters-of-photography.com/w/weston/weston_articles1.html). Text
from The
Encyclopedia of Photography.