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What kind of photography did Edward Weston make early in his career?
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Edward Weston
Edward Weston at Point Lobos, 1945, photograph by Imogen Cunningham.
Early in his career, through the early 1920s, Edward Weston worked in the Pictorialist style. As a portrait photographer in California, his work was characterized by the following techniques and subjects:1
- Imitation of Painting: He suppressed detail and manipulated images in the darkroom to mimic the aesthetic qualities of paintings.1
- Traditional Subjects: His photographs depicted standard salon subjects, including pastoral landscapes, romantic marine scenes, children, pets, still lifes, and nudes.1
- Abstractness: His work often avoided pointed specificity, meaning subjects were rarely identifiable as particular people or places, and they seldom appeared contemporary.1
By the early 1920s, Weston grew dissatisfied with this approach and began transitioning toward a "straight" photographic aesthetic that emphasized the unique qualities of the camera rather than those of painting.1