Exhibition
Edward Weston - Chris Beetles
Very few photographers have left a legacy as rich as that left by the American Modernist, Edward Weston. He was one of the great photographic innovators, and is remembered for having pushed the boundaries of the medium to new levels. Weston was an artist who found beauty in everything, from a discarded pair of boots to a mountain range, and he helped see photography into its greatest period – when the camera's mechanical clarity was at last embraced by artists, rather than smothered by artifice and hackneyed notions of the picturesque.
The 37 prints in this exhibition were made by Edward Weston's son Cole, in the decades after his Father's death, from the original negatives, and come directly from the family. These prints were made in small numbers, with both exquisite precision and the qualities that Cole knew his father demanded.
But he was also, during the early years of this collection of 37 prints (1920s to 1945), heavily influenced by the ideals of Modernism, and stuck close to its mantra, “Form follows function”. The lavatorial subject was not typical; he is best-known for the exquisite – and perfect – nautilus Shell, 1927, the erotically deformed Pepper, 1930, vast pictorial landscapes of Arizona and the female nudes.
