Edward Weston - One of the Grand Masters of Twentieth Century Straight Photography

Edward Henry Weston or Edward Weston was one of the most renowned and influential American photographers of the twentieth century. He was born on March 24, 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois. On Edward's sixteenth birthday, his father gifted him his first camera. This was the onset of Weston's love affair with photography.

As a beginner, he started clicking pictures in Chicago parks and his aunt's farm. In 1903, he exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute. Weston moved to California in 1906 to pursue a career in photography. He began by working as a door-to-door portrait photographer. For a formal training, he returned to Illinois in 1909 and attended the Illinois College of Photography. The same year, he married Flora May Chandler with whom he later had four sons. Weston opened his studio in 1911 in Tropico, California, where he operated until 1922. He was a huge success with his 'Pictorial Style Photography' and won many salon and professional awards. Edward even wrote a number of articles on the unconventional methods of portraiture for various magazines, like American Photography, Photo Era, and Photo Miniature.

An exhibition on Modern Art, in San Francisco World Fair, in 1915, greatly influenced Weston. He had grown restless with 'Pictorialism' and found it to be a mechanical manipulation of painting styles. He began experimenting with light, shadow, and soft focus. After meeting Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, he was further convinced that photographs should record the true essence of the subject, dead or alive, living or non-living. On a visit to Ohio in 1922, he clicked some photographs of the Armco Steel Plant. These pictures mark his tilt from 'Pictorialism' to 'Straight Photography,' involving the emergence of a sharp focused style.

Anita Brenner's book "Idols behind Altars," published some of his photographs, which he clicked during his brief stint in Mexico in 1923, along with professional & romantic companion Tina Modetti, who later even posed nude for him. These photos, such as "Tina Reciting and Excused," showed his clear transition into 'Straight Photography.' In 1927, he made a series of monumental close ups for which he is best known. His subjects varied from the objects like seashells, vegetables (peppers and halved cabbages), landscapes, and nudes. Weston skillfully created sharp pictures, using a large format camera with a small aperture, capturing the real beauty of the subject. The photographer, along with his son Brett, opened up a new studio in San Francisco in 1928. Edward Weston became a co-founder of the f/64 group of 'Purist Photographers,' such as Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke, in 1932.

He was also the first recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography in 1937. In 1938, the photographer married his assistant, Charis Wilson, with whom he has been living since 1934. In 1941, Weston provided illustrations for an edition of 'Whitman's Leaves of Grass.' His work started being hampered, as he was struck with Parkinson's disease in 1946. The same year he and Chris divorced. He took his last photos at Point Lobos in 1948. In 1952, his Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio was published with his images printed by his son Brett. Edward Weston died in Carmel, California, on January 01, 1958.

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com

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His Most Famous Photograph - Pepper 30 by Edward Weston

Ace photographer Edward Weston was born on March 24, 1886, in Illinois, USA. In 1932, he co-founded the influential 'Group F/64,' with Ansel Adams and Willard Van Dyke. His famous works, mostly done with an 8" X 10" view camera, included a series of landscapes, nudes, and still life. His interest in still life, especially certain vegetable, as evident in his "Pepper #30," was rooted into the initial years of his career, which started more as a hobby. After being gifted a Kodak camera in the year 1902, Weston began photography in the public parks of Chicago and at his aunt's farm.

Edward had an uncanny ability to bring out sensuality even in the vegetated life. His frames covering the ordinary peppers (vegetable) formed a complete body of work, with over 60 different photographs. The picture that earned him highest acclaims belonged to this series, titled "Pepper #30," which was taken in the year 1930. It is a black and white shot, closely focusing on a curved pepper. Weston was highly fascinated by the shapes and curves of this vegetable, which, according to him, carries an analogy to the human body. A careful and well-prepared shot of these peppers also gave an impression of magnificent abstract sculptures. One glance on "Pepper #30" makes it look like a picture of a well-carved figure, with an underlying voluptuousness. Only a closer examination reveals the object as an ordinary vegetable. Weston was a master of the use of light in all his works, especially the still life. The mesmerizing power of "Pepper #30" is greatly attributed to the effect of light. The source of light is placed transverse above, such that it illuminates the frontal portion of the vegetable. The frame can be divided into two portions - the upper one with pitch-dark background and the lower one, which is partially lit. The brightly shining upper half of the pepper remarkably stands out against the black background, whereas the lower half is demarcated only by its own shadow.

Edward Weston took a great care in capturing the frame from an angle that portrays the pepper in three dimensions, rather than as a flat image. Deciding upon the darkness of the original print is also challenging for images that thrive upon the interplay of lighting. Weston's rich experience is demonstrated from "Pepper #30," the 23.97 cm X 19.05 cm print of optimum strength that underscores the sensuality and the mellowness of the picture. The prodigious appreciation of an isolated piece of an otherwise common object is what makes Edward's this work, an epitome of artistry!

Annette Labedzki received her BFA at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, B.C. Canada. She has more than 25 years experience. She is the founder and developer of an online art gallery featuring original art from all over the world. It is a great site for art collectors to buy original art. Is is also a venue for artists to display and sell their art . Artists can join for free and their image upload is unlimited. Please visit the website at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com.

Annette has bonus offers on her work only. Buy 2 paintings of any size and receive 1 painting of your choice for free of equal size and value. Shipping is free in Canada and the US on smaller items. Please feel free to subscribe to her newsletter at http://www.Labedzki-Art.com.