On March 24, 1886 in Highland Park, Illinois, Edward Henry Weston was born. Edward Burbank Weston his father was an obstetrician and his mother Alice Jeanette Brett, was an actress. When he was only five Weston’s mother Alice passed away. His elder sister Mary who was fifteen at the time established a positive relationship and took over the mothering for young Edward. Four years later when he was nine his father remarried.
Neither child got along with their stepmother. He attended Oakland Grammar School in Chicago, Illinois. When his older sister Mary was married and moved out, young Edward became his parents’ sole focus.He withdrew from school and stayed home. After receiving a Kodak Bull’s Eye camera from his father for his sixteenth birthday, he began his photography career. At the beginning his photography career he took pictures of Chicago’s parks and his aunts farm.
In 1906 he was published in a magazine. Later that year he moved to California in search of money. He went door to door and was taking pictures of pets, people and funerals to make a few extra dollars. After two years he moved back to Chicago and began studying at the Illinois College of Photography.He excelled and finished the twelve-month course he was taking in six months. Weston returned to California, where he was hired to re-touch photographs at the George Steckel Portrait Studio in Los Angeles.
In 1909 he was hired as a photographer at the Louis A. Mojoiner Portrait Studio. He found and married his wife Flora Chandler, who he later had four children with. After three years Edward Weston opened his own photography studio in Tropico, California where he would spend the next twenty years of his life. He worked on soft focus, pictorial style prints.
These prints won him many awards and recognition. He gained an international reputation and premiered in many magazines such as American Photography, Photo Miniature, and he published many articles about his work. In the summer of 1920 he met Roubaix de l'Abrie Richey and Tina Modotti. These people were a growing part of the arts in Los Angeles at the time. Tina an actress was attracted to Edward Weston and they soon became lovers.
For the sake of his family Robo and Tina pretended to be married. After being invited to Robo’s studio in Mexico he began photographing nudes over the next twenty years.Following his trip to the ARMCO Steel Plant in Middletown, Ohio in 1922, he sparked a new interest for abstract shapes and detail. This inspired every one of his prints that he later produced. Edward was no longer interested in the classical picture style.
He wanted to diversify his portfolio and find new things to explore and discover. With this newfound interest, Weston captured individual pictures of industrial equipment and natural detail found in everyday items. The prints he produced included vegetables, rocks, and shells.Careful manipulation in the darkroom he made these pieces of black and white art come to life. Shadows became darker, highlights became more contrasted and the sole focus was detail. In 1923 Edward moved to Mexico City and opened a studio.
His apprentice and lover Tina worked beside him. Weston later found out that Robo, had contracted small pox and passed away. He took pictures of Tina nude and was classified by many other famous artists at that time to be the master of twentieth century art. Weston returned to California three years later in 1926.
The photographs taken then were of seashells, peppers, and sliced cabbage. He wanted to display their rich natural texture and the specifically show their sculpture like forms. He would soon meet other famous photographers such as Ansel Adams and Create the F/64 Group. The group wanted to make modern artistic prints of natural objects. They often set their lenses to f-stop 64 in anticipation that they would produce a crisp image that displays foreground and distance.
Weston, with many years of experience behind him, took a series of nude photos and photographed one of his most famous pictures.This picture was of the sand dunes in Oceano, California in 1936. Weston once again expanded his portfolio and photographed the Western and Southwestern United States for the following two years. In 1946, 300 of Weston’s best prints were on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The year 1948 rolled around Weston had advancing Parkinson’s disease and took his final photograph. After the Publishing of his work in 1952, the completed project included a number of eight by ten prints from over eight hundred negatives. The Smithsonian in 1956 held an exhibit of Edward’s best work.The show the “World of Edward Weston” honored the man who had accomplished so much in his lifetime and greatly changed the face and meaning of American photography.
Two years after the exhibit on January 1st, 1958, the great American photographer Edward Weston, died at his home in California. He was cremated, and his ashes were spread across the beach of Point Lobos where he photographed earlier in life. Edward Weston is an American photographer who, serves as an inspiration for any photographer. No one shall forget what he has done and may his soul rest in peace.
