Exhibition - Edward Weston: Life Work, Edinburgh, 19th August

Edward Weston is widely recognised as one of the masters of 20th century photography. This exhibition is the largest ever to visit the UK and it presents a survey of his career. I was delighted to find it on as part of the Edinburgh festival when we visited our son in August. It was divided into sections representing his different styles and includes some of his best known iconic images.



His most famous photographs of the 1920s are still lifes of sea shells such as the ones above of Nautilus shells. The lighting of these shells is superb and like some of the portrait photographers I have commented on earlier I love the contrasty black and white effect and the rich black backgrounds.


A lot of his work features vegetables and the image above Pepper No. 30, 1930 is perhaps the most famous pepper in the history of photography. Again the lighting is superb and the organic curves are reminiscent of the human form. It reminds me somewhat of a rear view of Rodin's sculpture The Thinker.
The Swiss Chard, 1927 is another example of his work on vegetables.

Weston went through two phases in his landscape photography, starting from the view that in order for an artist to make a proper landscape, he must choose the elements of nature that he wished to include. This early example of Shell and Rock Arrangement brings to mind a montage that might have been done today in Photoshop.

From the beginning of his career, Weston photographed nudes. In order to create photographs which have a timeless quality, Weston made sure not to show any birthmarks, scars and especially the face of his model. I find this of interest as during this course my emphasis seems to have been on showing the faces of subjects although I do like portraits when the subject is looking away from the camera and not always directly into the lens.