tg+printing

__Edward Weston __ By: Taylor Gibbons

Edward Weston an incredible artist was born in 1886 and died in 1958. He was born in Highland park, Illinois but was raised in Chicago. In the year of 1902 his father had given him his first camera, a Bulls-Eye #2. He would go to the Chicago Park and take photos of the landscaping and he soon traveled to California in 1906 where he was a door to door portrait photographer. Then two years later he attended the Illinois College of photography till 1911. He soon operated his own portrait studio in the same year he graduated from Illinois and had his business till 1922 in Tropico, California. He then went to New York City where he met many other photographers. This journey to the NYC was a turning point in Weston’s life. Weston inspired me to learn about him from his own inspiration of photography. He once said “the camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it is polished steel or palpitating flesh.” This statement describes just what his style of photography was too. It was natural form close ups, nudes, and landscapes. He was also inspired by his move to Mexico with his apprentice along as lover who enjoyed making portraits of nude studies. But he soon returned to California and carried on with his photography by opening a studio with his own son. He took more landscaping photos which made me fall in love with his work. The view of each photo along with great details of close ups shown in the picture makes it clear that there is some sort of message in his work whether it was or wasn’t intended. Also his nude work is amazing which made me like him as a photographer more because, it shows how the natural human body is beautiful in his eyes along with my own.


 * [[image:http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/Fame%20Pixs/westongrasssea.jpg width="268" height="209" caption="Edward Weston's Grass Against Sea"]] ||
 * Edward Weston's Grass Against Sea ||


 * [[image:http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/Fame%20Pixs/westonnudewindow.jpg width="268" height="209" caption="westonnudewindow.jpg (6697 bytes)"]] ||
 * westonnudewindow.jpg (6697 bytes) ||

E dward’s work taught me how a close up image can express so much more than a regular photo of a sea or even a lake as shown in one of his photo above. His work made him an easy choice to research because his work spoke to me as a young photographer and artist. His work makes me want to get up and try to make something out of myself. His technique of taking pictures isn’t strange but unique and one of a kind. He contributed to art by having 300 photos at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1946. Also, he the first recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for Photography in 1937. Edward Weston had accomplished a lot in his life before he died from Parkinson's disease in 1958. Weston’s work as a photographer expressed so much with his technique and enjoyment of photography which all started with his first camera. Edward Weston is very much admired.