QUOTATIONS
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers and "one of the masters of 20th century photography. Over the course of his 40-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of subjects, including landscapes, still lifes, nudes, portraits, genre scenes and even whimsical parodies. It is said that he developed a "quintessentially American, and specially Californian, approach to modern photography because of his focus on the people and places of the American West.
“I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect.”
“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.”
“The creative force in man recognizes and records these rhythms with the medium most suitable to him... To see the Thing Itself is essential: the quintessence revealed direct without the fog of impressionism - the casual noting of the superficial phase, a transitory mood. ”
“The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?”
“Man is the actual medium of expression - not the tool he elects to use as a means.”
“Photography suits the temper of this age - of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately. ”
“I see no reason for recording the obvious.”
“-on photography...
Why limit yourself to what your eyes see when you have such an opportunity to extend your vision?”
“My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera’s eye may entirely change my idea, even switch me to different subject matter. So I start out with my mind as free from image as the silver film on which I am to record, and I hope as sensitive. ”
“It seems so utterly naive that landscape - not that of the pictorial school - is not considered of ‘social significance’ when it has a far more important bearing on the human race of a given locale than excrescences called cities.”
“The photograph isolates and perpetuates a moment of time: an important and revealing moment, or an unimportant and meaningless one, depending upon the photographer’s understanding of his subject and mastery of his process.”
“Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it may be.”