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Rating: 
Summary: a modern classic
Review: An excellent and well documented introduction to Weston's oeuvre and philosophy. One of the true and underrated innovators in photography. If you love Adams, Depardon or Cartier Bresson's landscapes,welcome home ! Some stunning pictures of the desert. Very very good repro quality. Buy with confidence.
Rating: 
Summary: Natural Goodness -- "Form Follows Function"
Review: This book will appeal to all of those who appreciate high quality reproductions of Edward Weston's finest works. Dunes, cypress, nudes, and portraits are all conjured up by the name of Edward Weston, and each is well represented in this gorgeous volume. Before going into a description of this book, let me further caution those of you who do not know Edward Weston that he much favored nude photographs of women and had intimate relations with many women in his life which are described in Terence Pitts' interesting essay. If such things offend you, I suggest that you avoid this volume. "Edward understood thoughts and concepts that dwell on simple mystical levels." -- Ansel Adams It is appropriate that this volume contains some comments by Ansel Adams about Edward Weston. The two have many similarities in their work, and were friends. Both were attracted to the underlying grandeur of nature, and looked for the connectedness in all things (a sort of fractal-based perspective on unity). Weston was especially successful in integrating images of people with his nature images. The works speak for themselves. "Edward Weston, contrary to so many now practicing photography, never verbalized on his own work." -- Ansel Adams The potential for each of us from considering these images is very great from Adams' point of view. "You might discover, through Edward Weston's work, how basically good you are, or might become." Edward Weston was formally trained to be a studio photographer, and soon sought to escape the limitations of doing commercial portraits. He was very skilled in this area, and there was always demand for his work. After 1930, he was able to stop retouching portraits which was a great relief to him. Nature always fascinated him, and in the latter part of his life he was able to focus on the potential of his work rather than on eking out a living. In the 1930s he received the first Guggenheim Fellowship to travel for photography, and made good use of this to see locales he would not otherwise have reached. Weston's influence is important in the 20th century for establishing photography as an art, rather than as representation. Weston did his best work in California and Mexico, where he traveled extensively. I was also impressed with his industrial photography, which I had not seen much of before. He had an amazing eye for form in industrial settings and in designs of mundane objects. The images here are well reproduced in almost all cases, and the size of the pages is excellent for the images involved. Here are my favorites from the images in this superb book: Epilogue 1919 Sunny Corner in an Attic 1920 Ruth Shaw 1922 Armco Steel 1922 Lois Kellog 1923 Rose Roland, Mexico 1926 Shell 1927 Shells 1927 Cabbage Leaf 1931 Cypress Root, Seventeen Mile Drive 1929 Cypress Root and Succulents, Point Lobos 1930 Bedpan 1930 Charis 1934 Sheels and Hill, San Juan 1934 Dunes (5), Oceano, 1936 Iceberg Lake 1937 Juniper, Lake Tenaya 1937 Nude (#4 and #5) Oceano 1936 Dante's View, Death Valley 1937 Church Door, Hornitos, California 1940 Potato Cellar, Lake Tahoe 1937 Stonecrop and Cypress, Point Lobos 1939 I believe that a rewarding way to enjoy this work even more is to give yourself the equivalent of a Guggenheim fellowship for a shorter period of time, and visit many of the locales where Edward Weston produced these images. Take along your camera, and see what you can capture for yourself. It will increase your appreciation of what he saw, and the issues of capturing it for others. Enjoy the beauty around you, in all of its natural forms.
Rating:
Summary: Natural Goodness -- "Form Follows Function"
Review: This book will appeal to all of those who appreciate high quality reproductions of Edward Weston's finest works. Dunes, cypress, nudes, and portraits are all conjured up by the name of Edward Weston, and each is well represented in this gorgeous volume. Before going into a description of this book, let me further caution those of you who do not know Edward Weston that he much favored nude photographs of women and had intimate relations with many women in his life which are described in Terence Pitts' interesting essay. If such things offend you, I suggest that you avoid this volume. "Edward understood thoughts and concepts that dwell on simple mystical levels." -- Ansel Adams It is appropriate that this volume contains some comments by Ansel Adams about Edward Weston. The two have many similarities in their work, and were friends. Both were attracted to the underlying grandeur of nature, and looked for the connectedness in all things (a sort of fractal-based perspective on unity). Weston was especially successful in integrating images of people with his nature images. The works speak for themselves. "Edward Weston, contrary to so many now practicing photography, never verbalized on his own work." -- Ansel Adams The potential for each of us from considering these images is very great from Adams' point of view. "You might discover, through Edward Weston's work, how basically good you are, or might become." Edward Weston was formally trained to be a studio photographer, and soon sought to escape the limitations of doing commercial portraits. He was very skilled in this area, and there was always demand for his work. After 1930, he was able to stop retouching portraits which was a great relief to him. Nature always fascinated him, and in the latter part of his life he was able to focus on the potential of his work rather than on eking out a living. In the 1930s he received the first Guggenheim Fellowship to travel for photography, and made good use of this to see locales he would not otherwise have reached. Weston's influence is important in the 20th century for establishing photography as an art, rather than as representation. Weston did his best work in California and Mexico, where he traveled extensively. I was also impressed with his industrial photography, which I had not seen much of before. He had an amazing eye for form in industrial settings and in designs of mundane objects. The images here are well reproduced in almost all cases, and the size of the pages is excellent for the images involved. Here are my favorites from the images in this superb book: Epilogue 1919 Sunny Corner in an Attic 1920 Ruth Shaw 1922 Armco Steel 1922 Lois Kellog 1923 Rose Roland, Mexico 1926 Shell 1927 Shells 1927 Cabbage Leaf 1931 Cypress Root, Seventeen Mile Drive 1929 Cypress Root and Succulents, Point Lobos 1930 Bedpan 1930 Charis 1934 Sheels and Hill, San Juan 1934 Dunes (5), Oceano, 1936 Iceberg Lake 1937 Juniper, Lake Tenaya 1937 Nude (#4 and #5) Oceano 1936 Dante's View, Death Valley 1937 Church Door, Hornitos, California 1940 Potato Cellar, Lake Tahoe 1937 Stonecrop and Cypress, Point Lobos 1939 I believe that a rewarding way to enjoy this work even more is to give yourself the equivalent of a Guggenheim fellowship for a shorter period of time, and visit many of the locales where Edward Weston produced these images. Take along your camera, and see what you can capture for yourself. It will increase your appreciation of what he saw, and the issues of capturing it for others. Enjoy the beauty around you, in all of its natural forms.
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