Edward Weston Life Work: Exhibition at Edinburgh City Art Gallery

I visited this exhibition earlier in August during a holiday with friends at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Before visiting the exhibition I was aware that Edward Weston was one of most prominent photographers of the 20th century, but I had only a vague idea of his work.

As noted in the exhibition leaflet, this is "the largest exhibition of his work ever to visit the UK, and it presents a survey of his career".

The exhibition included photographs from various periods including portraits, still life photos, landscapes and nudes. Many of his most famous images were included. I also purchased a small book on Edward Weston published by Taschen which includes many of these photographs. There is a large collection of his photographs available on line at the Centre for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona.

My immediate impression on glancing around the exhibition rooms was the strong composition of many of the images, even though the prints were relatively small by modern standards. In my notes I recorded brief details of several of his less well known photographs where the composition caught my eye.

Sunny corner in an attic:

A man smoking a pipe is resting against a shady area in the bottom right hand side of the frame facing to the right out of the frame. Light streaming from the left hand side of the frame is lighting up an adjoining wall and it is just catching the side of his face. In my sketch of the composition, I thought that the wall against which the figure was leaning was a rectangular block as if on a roof top. Having seen some other images, I guess that the scene is instead the interior of an attic where light is entering from a dormer window or skylight.

The polygonal shapes of the light and shade in the attic are not readily resolved by the eye into a three dimensional structure. The presence of the figure in this abstract scene seems unreal and ungrounded. This seems to be a situation where interest is created by the absence of understandable perspective and a departure from conventional composition.

Grinding maize:

In the centre, a Mexican woman is sitting with her back to us on a light coloured mat. The woman has a dark skirt which is spread out around her on the mat. She is wearing a light coloured blouse which stands out against the dark shadow area surrounding the mat. We cannot see the woman's hands but she is hunched forward so that her head is barely visible. We see just a plait of hair laying between her shoulders.

This is a strong image due to the contrasts between the woman's clothes and the background with dark on light and light against dark. The woman's posture conveys the effort of grinding, without showing her hands working. This is not a dull subject and the relatively symmetrical horizontal composition works well.

Toadstool:

This is a picture of the gills of a toadstool. The toadstool is on its side with the underside facing the lens. The stem is a dark shape in the lower left foreground. The light toned gills on the underside of the toadstool radiate from the top of the stem. The head of the toadstool fills almost all of the frame except for the corners, which are dark.

Similar to some of his other still life photographs of vegetables, the picture celebrates the structure and texture of the toadstool. The light appears to come from below and spreads across the underside of the gills which seem slightly translucent. In one of the later exercises of the course, I will need to attempt something similar to demonstrate the structure and texture of a subject.

Dunes at Oceana:

He took many photographs of dunes at Oceana. The one that I examined at the exhibition was taken from a high viewpoint looking along an undulating ridge of sand. The ridge starts midway up the left hand side of the frame and descends to the bottom right where it curves upwards and snakes away into the distance exiting the frame in the top right hand corner. The light is fairly high in the sky so that the only shadows are to the front and right hand edge of the ridge of sand. Little texture is shown on the flat area of sand behind the ridge.

I find it difficult to analyze why this composition is so effective. It may be the subject's shape has the characteristics of fractal geometry and this is what attracts the viewers eye. It recalls one of the paintings by Jean Miro that I saw at the museum of his work in Barcelona. A single line undulates across a neutral background on a huge canvas that filled a wall of the exhibition room. Despite its simplicity, the composition of this painting appeared to be interesting and balanced.

(This particular painting is not shown on the museum's website unfortunately.)

I also found it interesting that the size of the photographs was quite small. The photograph of Dunes at Oceana was about 25 cms by 20 cms. One of the famous nude photographs was only about 10x7 cms. This is significantly less than contemporary photographs e.g. the exhibition of Irving Penn photographs at the National Portrait Gallery.

I read the commentary in the book but these dealt mainly with Edward Weston's significance in the history of photography. I am more interested in his compositional repertoire and techniques.

Photography book - Galen Rowell's "Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography"

This is a book that I bought and read almost fifteen years ago (the paperback version that I have was published in 1995). Living at that time in a large and congested city, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, I especially valued weekend trips away along the coast or up into the mountains. There were plenty of fascinating places and people to photograph and each trip was a small adventure into the unknown. It was in this context that Galen Rowell's photography particularly appealed to me.

The most important idea that I gleaned from this book at that time was that it is essential to move around to find the most appropriate viewpoint for a subject. Second, the importance of using the morning and afternoon light. One of his comments that I picked out this time is "Zealots get things done - need to accept discomfort to get the best photos."

I have been reading this book again over the past few months. It is a collection of magazine articles and essays on four themes, which I have summarized as:

- the importance of vision, truth and style in photography

- techniques relating to equipment, film, work flow etc.

- ethics and issues that arise for a photographer working in far flung places

- photography as a means to influence public opinion

The section on use of equipment and film available in the 90's is of limited interest as a result of digital technology. The other articles remain interesting today, and the photographs are fabulous, even in the paperback version of the book.

In the context of my current position as a student on The Art of Photography course the points of interest that I noted from the book are as follows (not in any particular order):-

• A large number of the photographs are landscapes, but I was surprised to find that in many of these, he used people (less often animals or trees) in the foreground to create a sense of scale.
• He was adept at using colour and form to create drama in his photographs, for example twilight skies, alpenglow on high peaks, silhouettes.
• On exposure, expose for the most important highlight (my italics)
• His minimum equipment for mobility were: 24 mm prime lens, 85 mm prime lens, graduated neutral density filters, flash, light but strong tripod. (This maybe explains why my 18-70mm zoom lens is the one that I use the most when out and about.)

Several of the articles deal with some nature photographers' dilemmas:

• By photographing a natural place, a photographer may be encouraging further destruction of the wilderness. On the other hand, without communication, no-one may care whether a natural place is ruined.
• Should the photographer be strictly an impartial observer or should he participate?
• What is good practice regarding "truth" of photography and "manipulated" photographs.

In relation to borderline between "Nature" and manipulated photography, Galen refers to an editorial classification for photojournalism:-

• "Manipulated" - cannot be used for photojournalism e.g. cloning something out of a photograph. (I read that even cloning out a foot not essential to a scene disqualified a photograph from a press award recently)
• "Contrived" - manipulation of setting e.g re-staging of real event
• "Controlled" - undisturbed setting, but photographer influences the scene e.g. "hold that pose"
• "Found" - record of the scene as it would have been without the photographers presence

The "Found" classification is a similar standard to that which should apply to Nature Photography. Galen goes on to suggest refining this "Found" category to distinguish the quality of the artistic input of the photographer:-

• "Snapped" - technically good photograph but no forethought
• "Pre-visualized" - conscious composition of scenic photograph as found
• "Pre-conceptualized" - active intention to capture a "found" scene in a particular way e.g. to return in a different light
• "Created" - image visualized and then location researched and found.

I do not feel that this classification has much practical use. Nevertheless I was interested as this analysis might describe the steps required to successfully complete the Art of Photography course.

At the start most of my photographs would fall within the "Snapped" group.

Half way through the course, I am much more conscious of trying to achieve an interesting composition of contrast, form and colour - "Previsualized".

By the end of the course, I will hopefully have gained some ability to "pre-conceptualize" or even "create" a photograph of a natural scene, a person, or an event.

On a different subject, I think that, subconsciously, this sort of analysis underlies my lack of desire and distaste for photography of captive animals. The images taken by some members of my local photography club at such places are stunning. I love photographs of natural creatures, but I feel that a distant photograph of a bird or animal in its natural habitat is far more valuable than a photogenic close up of a captive animal. My concern is that if photographers and viewers become overly accustomed to the detailed photographs of captive animals, pictures taken in a natural habitat which lack the equivalent lighting and detail become devalued and appear to be second rate.