Edward Weston

Edward Weston was born in 1886. He was born in Highland Park, Illinois. He became a very famous photographer in his time. He traveled the United States, taking pictures of a variety of different subjects and focuses. In the early years of his life, Weston was alone. He was alone both as a man and as a photographer. As a boy, he was too shy to ask for help from a photographer. Later, the only photographers who would have understood him were three thousand miles away on the East Coast, while he was on the West Coast.

Weston’s first photographs were in 1902. They were taken in the Chicago parks. Then in 1906, he traveled to California on holiday. He stayed there, and took many photographs. In 1911, Weston opened his own portrait studio in Tropico, California. He took a brief journey to Ohio and New York City, in 1922. There he photographed steel mills. He also met Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and Charles Sheeler. The next year, 1923, Weston went to Mexico with Tina Modotti. He opened a studio in Mexico City. From the next few years he jumped back and forth from Mexico to California.

Weston moved to Carmel, California in 1929. He enjoyed the ocean’s coast, the scenic view, and the mild climate of Carmel. Weston was not known for his landscapes. He was known for his nudes, portraits of the artist friends, and compositions of objects purposely arranged as still-lives. But that is not what attracted Weston to Carmel. He hoped to establish a profitable commercial portrait business among the area’s residents and summer visitors.

On January 28, 1932, in his journal, Weston wrote:

I would say to any artist—don’t be repressed by your work—dare to experiment—consider any urge—if in a new direction all the better—as a gift form the Gods not to be lightly denied by convention or a priori concept. Our time is becoming more and more bound by logic, absolute rationalism: this is a straitjacket!—it is the boredom and narrowness which rises directly form mediocre mass thinking.

He was trying to inspire future photographers with these words. The seventy-year-old writings of Weston still apply in today’s world.

In 1935, Weston traveled to Santa Monica. He photographed there for quite a while. By this time, he was well known for his work as a photographer. So it was not surprising when Weston became the first photographer to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship. The same year, he traveled throughout California and to the West, taking photos as he went.

On April 26, 1937, Weston wrote in his journal saying:

Anything that excites me, for any reason, I will photograph: not searching for unusual subject matter but making the commonplace unusual, nor indulging in extraordinary technique to attract attention. Work only when desire to the point of necessity impels—then do it honestly. Then so called ‘composition’ becomes a personal thing, to be developed along with technique, as a personal way of seeing.

In 1938, Weston got married to Charis Wilson; at the time he was forty-five years old. He settled down for a while in Carmel. His Guggenheim Fellowship was extended that year.

On September 10, 1939 Weston regarded, in his journal, about the importance of the camera. He wrote:

On the other hand what a valuable way of recording just such passing moments is the camera! And I certainly would be the first to grasp the opportunity, if I were ready at the time! I can not, never have been bound by any theory or doctrine, not even my own.

Weston continued to photograph throughout the South and the East. He photographed for a special edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. His trip was cut short though, by the disastrous happenings at Pearl Harbor. He returned home to Carmel. Once there, Weston served as an air raid plane spotter in his hometown.

There was a major retrospective exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1946. Weston’s photography was the main event at the exhibition. He wrote a monograph, with a bibliography, and a list of exhibitions. The museum published the monograph shortly after he wrote it. In regard to the exhibit in the museum, Weston wrote in his journal saying:

“I will always be criticized for the size of my show. But I am a prolific, mass-production, omnivorous seeker. I can’t be represented by 100, 200, or even 300 photographs to cover 44 years work. By the way 2% of my show made last month! Not printed but photographed. Well if public can’t see 300 photographs, during one visit to the exhibition, let them come again and again and again.

Weston worked mostly with black and white photography until the year of 1947. He was on location with Willard Van Dyke. Weston was there while they made the motion picture The Photographer. He worked in color while he was on this location. Color was new for him.

On February 23, 1948 Weston was about to travel to Point Lobos when his wrote, “I am the adventurer on a voyage of discovery, ready to receive fresh impressions, eager for fresh horizons—to identify myself in, and unify with, whatever I am able to recognize as a significantly part of me: the ‘me’ of universal rhythms.”

In 1948, Weston made his last photographs. He was at Point Lobos. He could no longer take photographs, because he was stroke with Parkinson’s disease. Photography was his most beloved thing to do in the world, and it was taken away from him when the disease stroke. Although Weston could no longer take photographs, he was not finished as a photographer. In 1950, two years after he was stricken with the Parkinson’s disease, he was invited to a major retrospective in Paris, France. Weston, by now, was known worldwide for his photography skills.

In 1952, Edward Weston published a portfolio. His son, Brett, helped to make his father’s work published. The book was called Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio. It showed many photographs taken by Weston.

On March 28, 1954 Weston wrote in his journal about his photography career finally coming to an end. He said:

Robin once wrote ‘You are safe to finish what you have to finish.’ Maybe he was right, in fact I’m sure he is. So thinking, I wonder how that thought touches me. Was I cut off from my creative work at just the right time? Was I through? I don’t think so, but could be.

That would be the last entry in his journal.

About three years later, in 1955, he published yet another book, again with his son’s help. This book was made from a thousand negatives. He picked eight sets of prints that he considered the best of his life’s work. To Weston, this book was his greatest work. In 1958, Edward Weston died on New Year’s Day.