Edward Weston
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 forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and specially 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.
-- source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Weston
His work:
My take on Edward Weston:
My Arts Concentration photos this term rooted from the works of Edward Weston. I was first introduced to the renowned photographer over a passing conversation with Mr. Mellon (my Arts Con adviser). After looking at some of my experimental shots at the studio on body planes, Mr. Mellon suggested I did some research on Weston as we both shared the same style of photography. After reading his bibliography and hunting down some of his less famous photographs, I was completely mesmerized by the abstract of his portrait, nude, and still life shots. Weston played a lot with angles and lighting so I tried my best to emphasize these two factors in my shoot.
I decided to play with the model's collarbones and rotated some of the photos to show Weston's abstract side. My favourite shot would be the first photo, although I do think that both collages are interesting to look at. I started off editing the photos in colour and really enjoyed the model's skin tone under the harsh studio lights-- they gave off the feel of sun-kissed skin. Initially, I wanted my use of colour to be the visual difference that would separate my work from Weston's. I ended up changing my mind last minute as I realized the angles of the body planes are actually emphasized more in black and white. The shadows are darker and the highlights of the collar bones are played up more.
