Aaron Siskind, Paul Strand and Edward Weston have, on occasions, chosen
to isolate areas of a subject by careful framing. They have created
abstract images by emphasising and recording formal elements such as
shape, tone and line that might not otherwise be noticed.
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Edward Weston
From
an accomplished commercial photographer of Pictorialist persuasion,
Edward Weston developed into the quintessential American
artist/photographer of his time. Born in Illinois in 1886, he opened a
portrait studio in California in 1911, finding time also to exhibit at
Pictorialist salons. After his definitive break with Pictorialism, seen
in the 1922 Armco images, Weston embarked on the fife of an impecunious
but free artist, singlemindedly devoted to creative endeavor. Convinced
at this time that "the photographer ... can depart from the literal
recording to whatever extent he chooses" as long as the methods remain
"photographic,"" he controlled form and tone through choice of motif,
exposure time, and the use of the ground-glass focusing screen of the
large-format camera. This way of working, which he called
pre-visualization, was a factor in Weston's exclusion of temporal and
transient effects of light, atmosphere, and movement in order to
concentrate on revealing the object 'in its "deepest moment of
perception." Following
a four-year period in Mexico, during which he opened a portrait studio
with Tina Modotti and became part of the revitalized Mexican artistic
movement of the period, Weston returned to a simple existence in Carmel,
California. In 1927, he began to photograph single objects -both
organic forms and artifacts-removed from their ordinary contexts. In
addition to the well-known nautilus shells and green peppers,
he arranged and illuminated a series of household implements whose
shapes seemed intrinsically beautiful, and photographed them close-up
with great precision in order to reveal "an essence of what lies before
the ... lens," thus creating an "image more real and comprehensible than
the actual object."
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