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Edward Weston

[wes-tuhn]

Edward Henry Weston (March 24 1886 – January 1 1958) was an American photographer, and co-founder of Group f/64. Most of his work was done using an 8 by 10 inch view camera. The New York Times newspaper reported on April 14, 2008 that his photograph of Sotheby’s sold to a New York art dealer for $1.6 Million.

Life and work

Edward Henry Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois on March 24, 1886. In 1902, he received his first camera for his 16th birthday, a Kodak Bull's-Eye #2, and began taking photographs in Chicago parks and at his aunt's farm. Weston met with quick success and the Chicago Art Institute exhibited his photographs a year later, in 1903. He attended the Illinois College of Photography.

In 1906, Weston moved to California, where he decided to stay and pursue a career in photography. He married Flora May Chandler in 1909, and together they had four sons: Edward Chandler (1910), Theodore Brett (1911), Laurence (1914) and Cole (1919). In 1910, Weston opened his first photographic studio in Tropico, California (now Glendale) and wrote articles about his unconventional methods of portraiture for several high-circulation magazines.

1922 marked a period of transition for Weston. Renouncing pictorialism in favor of straight photography, he would later become known as the "pioneer of precise and sharp presentation" with images of natural forms such as the human figure, seashells, plants, vegetables, and landscapes. He began regular visits to Mexico with his professional and romantic partner, Tina Modotti, whose relationship with Weston caused much gossip in the media. They were often accompanied by one of Weston's sons, who received a sound instruction in photography. Brett and Cole later embarked on their own successful careers in this field; likewise his grandson Kim, and his great-granddaughter Christine Weston (born 1958).

After 1927, Weston worked mainly with nudes, still life — his shells and vegetable studies were especially important — and landscape subjects. After a few exhibitions of his works in New York, he co-founded Group f/64 in 1932 with Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke and others. The term f/64 referred to a very small aperture setting on a large format camera, which secured great depth of field, making a photograph appear evenly sharp from foreground to background. Weston also achieved great sharpness by not enlarging. He made contact prints from his 4x5" or 8x10" negatives. The detailed, straight photography that the group espoused was in opposition to the pictorialist soft-edged methods that were still in fashion at the time.

In 1937 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation awarded Weston a fellowship, the first given to a photographer. He married his assistant, Charis Wilson, the following year (they had lived together since 1934, and divorced in 1946). During this time he received exclusive commissions and published several books, some with Wilson, including an edition of Whitman's Leaves of Grass illustrated with his photographs. He also produced some of his few color photographs with Willard Van Dyke in 1947. Weston also collaborated on several volumes of his photographs with photography critic Nancy Newhall, beginning in 1946.

The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson houses a full archive of Edward Weston's work.

Illness and death

Stricken with Parkinson's Disease, Weston made his last photographs at Point Lobos State Reserve in 1948. 1952 saw the publication of a 50th-anniversary portfolio of his work, printed by his son Brett. Brett and Cole Weston, as well as Brett's wife Dody Warren, were appointed to print 800 of what he considered his most important negatives under his supervision in the years 1955 to 1956.

Edward Weston died in his house on Wildcat Hill in Carmel Highlands in Big Sur, California on January 1 1958, aged 71.

Legacy

His comprehensive legacy includes the detailed and articulate Daybooks he kept regularly from the mid-1920s to 1934, which allow a very intimate glimpse into his personal life, his views on photography, and his working methods. Weston is generally recognized as one of the greatest photographic artists of the 20th century.

Images

Most Popular: "Pepper #30"; "Dunes, Oceano", "Nude, 1936"

Price History:
1970s: $500 - $1,500
1980s: $3,000 - $50,000
1990s: $10,000 - $300,000
Current: $5,000 - $1.6M

Most of his photographs are rare and unnumbered and few vintage photographs are available.

Even though he was a celebrated photographer he survived selling his photos for a humble price of $7-10. Now, they have gone up over 1,000,000% in value.

Quotations

"Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it may be."

"The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh."

"I cannot believe I learned anything of value in school unless it be the will to rebel."

"I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect."

Selected publications

Edward Weston: The Last Years in Carmel
Edward and Brett Weston: Dune
The Daybooks of Edward Weston
Edward Weston: Nudes
Portraits by Edward Weston
Tina Modotti & Edward Weston: The Mexico Years
Edward Weston: His Life
Edward, Cole, Kim Weston: Three Generations of American Photography
Edward Weston: 1886-1958
Edward Weston (Masters of Photography Series)
Laughing Eyes (a collection of letters between Edward and Cole Weston)
Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston by Charis Wilson and Wendy Madar (1998) ISBN 0-86547-521-0