Synopsis:
For more than 15 years, Edward Weston kept a diary in which he recorded his struggle to understand himself, his society and his art. His journal has become a classic of photographic literature. Weston was a towering figure in twentieth-century photography, whose restless quest for beauty and the mystical presence behind it resulted in a body of work unrivaled in the medium. John Szarkowski observes that "It was as though the things of everyday experience had been transformed... into organic sculptures, the forms of which were both the expression and the justification of the life within... He had freed his eyes of conventional expectation, and had taught them to see the statement of intent that resides in natural form."
About the Author:
Edward Weston (1886-1958) is one of the twentieth century's most prominent and pioneering photographers. In 1917 he became a member of the London Salon and in 1922 he met Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand.
In 1923 with his marriage failing he went to Mexico and opened a studio. It is at this time that he began keeping journals which he referred to as "daybooks." He wrote in his daybooks until 1943, and in 1961 they were edited by Nancy Newhall and published for the first time.
He was the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. Sadly, he was stricken with Parkinson's disease in the early 1940s and he relied on his sons, Brett and Cole, to continue printing for him. Cole, his youngest son became his assistant in 1946 and in 1952 the two men put together their father's 50th Anniversary Folio. After Edward's death in 1958 Cole fulfilled his father's wish and continued to print his negatives.
Nancy Newhall (1908-1974) dedicated thirty years of her life to photography, as a writer, scholar, critic, editor, and collaborator in publishing the work of several of the most influential photographers of this century.
Among her many accomplishments are the highly acclaimed exhibitions of Paul Strand and Edward Wilson, which she directed at the Museum of Modern Art. Author of the classic biography of Ansel Adams, The Eloquent Light, she also edited and collaborated with Paul Strand to produce the book Time in New England. Her other books include P.H. Emerson: The Fight for Photography as a Fine Art; Edward Wilson: The Flame of Recognition, (ed); and This Is the American Earth (with Ansel Adams).
Beaumont Newhall (1908-1993) was a distinguished historian and curator, and author of the definitive The History of Photography.
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