Edward Weston was born 1886 in Highland Park, Illinois. He is a photographer known for his close-ups, nudes, and landscapes as well as being the first photographer to receive the Guggenheim Fellowship for experimental work (1936). Weston began his career in California where he would travel door-to-door and photograph for families and funerals. Soon after he attended the Illinois College of Photography and eventually opened his own portrait studio where he became a notable, award-winning photographer. The “turning point” in Weston’s career happened in the ARMCO Steel Plant in Ohio where he discovered the “abstract form and sharper resolution of detail”. After this turning point Weston wrote, “The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpitating flesh”. In the following years Weston will go on to explore nude photography, landscapes, and monumental close-ups of organic materials until his death in 1958.
I find this work engaging because of the high contrast of values, attention to fine details, and sculpture-like qualities that the artist applies to his subject matter. Weston emphasizes the natural textures and uses specific lighting to portray vegetables as seductive figures.
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