Edward Henry Weston Biography

Introduction

Edward Henry Weston who lived between the years 1886 and 1958 became one of the most renowned and famous American photographers. He was branded a 20th-century photographer due to his success as a photograph artist (Frampton, 48). Weston had a successful career of forty years, during which he displayed hos innovativeness by photographing increasingly variable sets of subjects including portraits, landscapes, whimsical parodies, and genre scenes. Weston was said to develop an approach to modern photography, which was described as "typically American, and specially Californian" (Blackstone, 210). That was because most of his photographs were focused on places and people of the American West. Weston became the first photographer to be given a Guggenheim Fellowship in the year 1937. About two years after the receipt of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Weston recorded a higher number of negatives than before. Using his camera, which was an 8 10 view, he produced almost one thousand four hundred negatives. Some of the most famous photographs by Weston were of nature, ranging from trees to rocks at Point Lobos in California around where he lived for several years. People loved nature, and that is exactly what Weston condensed into an image and presented to his target audience.

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At the age of 21, Weston move from Chicago, which was his place of birth and moved to California. At that age, Weston already knew he wanted to be a successful photographer, and he already figured out how to start pursuing his dream career (Blackstone, 220). Since soft-focus pictorialism was very popular at the time Weston started doing photography, his initial works were typically that. After a few years, he abandoned typical soft-focus pictorialism and focused in a more detailed type of photograph. After several attempts and successes, he became one of the champions in the production of detailed photographic images. In the year 1947, Weston was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and he had to stop concentrating much on his career (Frampton, 48). In fact, soon thereafter, he stopped photographing completely. During the remaining ten years of Weston's life, he stopped active photographing and spent the time overseeing the printing of more than one thousand of his famous images.

Weston's early life molded his dream as a photographer, both his parents and friends contributed greatly to his success in becoming one of the most successful photographers of his time. He was born to Edward Burbank Weston and Alice Jeanette Brett in Highland Park in Illinois. Weston's father was an obstetrician, and her mother was a Shakespearean actress. Since Weston's mother died when he was five years old, his sister Mary stepped in and raised him throughout his childhood (Frampton, 48). He usually referred to her sister as either "Mazie" or "May." Weston claimed that her relationship with her sister Mary, who was nine years older than he was the most stable relationship he ever had. That was because they developed a liking for each other and a close bond. When Weston turned nine, her father remarried and had a son with Weston's stepmother. Neither Weston nor Mary got along with either the stepmother or the stepbrother. Mary got married in the year 1897, and Weston remained alone as her father devoted most of his time to the stepmother and her son. In fact, Weston stopped going to school and stayed indoor in his room (Weston, and Newhall, 239).

On Weston's 16th birthday, his father bought him a Kodak Bull's Eye #2 camera, which he took on his vacation in the West. It was during the vocation that Weston's interest in photography heightened (Blackstone, 231). In fact, due to his interest in photography, he decided to buy a used view camera, which was 5 7 inch to replace the simple box camera his father gave him on his birthday (Frampton, 48). Weston began his photography in Chicago Park as well as his aunt's farm. He later developed his own prints and film. Later in his life, Weston reflected on his early childhood and reiterated, "I feel that my earliest work of 1903 though immature is related more closely, both with technique and composition, to my latest work than are several of my photographs dating from 1913-1920, a period in which I was trying to be artistic" (Blackstone, 87).

Most of the photography done by Weston in the early 1920's, which were his initial works were identified as pictorialist style. Pictorialist images are ones that imitate paintings. Weston seemed to be adapting to the current trends in photography and being open to innovations by adopting any new approach in photography. That is why his works are not consistent in terms of theme, style, and subject. For instance, in the early 1920's, people loved paintings, that is why he imitated paintings in his photography to suit the tastes of the people at the time (Frampton, 48).

In the year 1923, Weston traveled to Mexico and opened a photographic studio together with Tina Modotti, who was his lover. It was during that time when Weston produced various nudes and portraits, for which he is famous today. He quickly rose to fame in Mexico and several artists of the time such as David Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, and Jose Orozco referred to him as a pioneer of the twentieth-century art. In the year 1926, Weston traveled back to the United States of America and settled in California. In California, he continued his production of the nudes, natural forms, close-ups, and landscapes (Weston, and Newhall, 156). In the 1940's, he produced several portraits of his family members, some of which are now classified as the best works of his lifetime. His career reached the peak in the year 1946 when the New York City Museum of Modern Art recognized retrospective exhibit of his work including three hundred prints. On January 1 of the year 1958, Weston died in California in a place called Carmel (Frampton, 48).

Nautilus, which is recognized as one of the greatest photographs produced by Weston during his career as a photo artist shows a greater-than-life quality. Other than the closeness to which Weston to the photograph of the Nautilus, the monumentality of the form is what makes it one of the best artworks, just like most of the other images of shells. The clarity of the photograph indicates proper use of light and inward luminescence, which is implicit in most of his works as well. The image glow with interior life, which makes the audience to see more than just the form. Nautilus is a photograph, which is black-and-white in nature and was taken by Edward Weston in the year 1927. The image is of a single Nautilus shell, balance on its end on a dark background.

Works Cited

Blackstone, William. Commentaries on the Laws of England, In Four Books. Nabu Press, 2010.

Frampton, Hollis. "Impromptus on Edward Weston: Everything in Its Place." October, vol 5, 1978, p. 48. JSTOR, doi:10.2307/778644.

The Art Story. "Edward Weston Overview and Analysis." The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/artist-Weston-edward.htm. Accessed 29 July 2018.Weston, Edward. Edward Weston; the Flame of Recognition His Photographs Accompanied By Excerpts from the Daybooks and Letters. 1975.

Weston, Edward, and Nancy Wynne Newhall. Edward Weston, Photographer. Aperture, 1958.