Edward weston biography summary

Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and especially Californian, approach to modern photography" because of his focus on the people and places of the American West. In 1937 Weston was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, and over the next two years he produced nearly 1,400 negatives using his 8 × 10 view camera. Some of his most famous photographs were taken of the trees and rocks at Point Lobos, California, near where he lived for many years.

Weston was born in Chicago and moved to California when he was 21. He knew he wanted to be a photographer from an early age, and initially his work was typical of the soft focus pictorialism that was popular at the time. Within a few years, however he abandoned that style and went on to be one of the foremost champions of highly detailed photographic images.

In 1947 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and he soon stopped photographing. He spent the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.

Life and work

1886–1906: Early li

1886 - 1958

Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois and spent the majority of his childhood in Chicago. He got his first camera as a gift on his 16th birthday and began taking photographs in Chicago parks and his aunt's farm.

In 1903, Weston first had his photographs exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute, and shortly thereafter moved to California, where he decided to stay and pursue a career in photography. For a short while he returned back to Chicago to take a course at the Illinois College of Photography, but came back to California, where he opened his own portrait studio. This would be his base of operation for the next two decades.

Weston gained an international reputation for his high key portraits and modern dance studies. Articles about his work were published in magazines such as American Photography, Photo Era and Photo Miniature.

1922 marked a period of transition for Weston. Renouncing pictorialism in favor of straight photography, he began regular visits to Mexico with his professional and romantic partner, Tina Modotti. Many important portraits and nudes were taken during his time in Mexico. It was also here that famous artists such as Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco hailed Weston as the master of 20th century art.

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. They chose this optical term because they habitually set their lenses to that aperture to secure maximum image sharpness of both foreground and distance.

In 1937, The Solomon Guggenheim Foundation awarded Weston a fellowship, the first given to a photographer. He received exclusive commissions and published several books during this time.

Weston began experiencing symptoms of Parkinson's disease in 1946 and in 1948 shot h

Summary of Edward Weston

From mild mid-western salesman to bohemian California artist, Edward Weston helped revolutionize photography so that it became an important component of modern art. His philandering ways got him into trouble in his personal life, but elevated him to new heights in his profession - helping him to forge artistic relationships with other modernists and inspiring his lifelong drive to capture the essence and beauty of everyday objects. Through his promotion of straight photography and his daybooks, in which he recorded his artistic growth, Weston helped cement photography's place as a legitimate modern artistic medium and influenced an entire generation of American photographers.

Accomplishments

• By creating photographs that transformed his subjects into abstractions of shapes and patterns, Weston helped bring the medium out of the Victorian age that favored pictorialist imitations of painting and into the modern era wherein photography became a celebrated medium in its own right.
• Similar to images used by the Surrealists, Weston's high resolution, realist photographs of organic forms and modern marvels encouraged viewers to reconsider seemingly mundane objects and form new associations with them.
• Weston cofounded the f/64 Group, which promoted rather than disguised the characteristics of photography and, in so doing, transformed the photographer from printmaker to artist.

Important Art by Edward Weston

Progression of Art

Edward Weston (b.1886 - d.1958) began photographing at the early age of sixteen after receiving a Bull's Eye #2 camera from his father, Edward Burbank Weston. Weston’s first photographs captured the parks of Chicago and his aunt’s rural farm. In 1906 he moved to California to live with his sister May. Weston married his first wife, Flora Chandler in 1909. With Flora he had four children, Edward Chandler (1910), Theodore Brett (1911), Laurence Neil (1916) and Cole (1919). In 1911, Weston opened his own portrait studio in Tropico, California. This would be his base of operation for the next two decades. Weston became successful working in soft-focus, pictorial style, winning many salons and professional awards. He gained an international reputation for his high key styled portraits and modern dance studies. Articles about his work were published in magazines such as American Photography, Photo Era and Photo Miniature.

In 1923 Weston moved to Mexico City where he opened a photographic studio with his apprentice and lover Tina Modotti. Many important portraits and nudes were taken during his time in Mexico. It was also here that famous artists; Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Jose Orozco hailed Weston as the master of 20th century art.

After returning to California in 1926, Weston began his work for which he is most deservedly famous: natural forms, close-ups, nudes, and landscapes. Between 1927 and 1930, Weston made a series of monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages, bringing out the rich textures of their sculpture-like forms. He moved to Carmel, California in 1929 and shot the first of many photographs of rocks and trees at Point Lobos, California.

He became one of the founding members of Group f/64 in 1932 with Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham and Sonya Noskowiak. The group chose this optical term because they habitually set their lenses to that aperture to secure maximum image sharpness of b