Edward Weston's Technique

Mustafa Umut Sarac · Mar 20, 2013

Mustafa Umut Sarac submitted a new resource:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists) - Edward Weston's Technique

From The Daybooks of Edward Weston 1. MEXICO II. CALIFORNIA
Edited by Nancy Newhall
Foreword by Beaumont Newhall

Edward Westons Technique
Edward Weston brought to Mexico an 8 x 10 view camera and a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4
Graflex. His battery of lenses included an expensive anastigmat of unspecified
make and several soft focus, or diffused focus, lenses, among
them a Wollensak Verito and a Graf Variable. These lenses had the
characteristic that the degree of diffusion (i.e., spherical...

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

David Allen · Mar 20, 2013

If my memory serves me correctly, Edward Weston's move to glossy paper was the direct result of Brett Weston having done so before him.

Best,

David
www.dsallen.de

Eric Rose · Mar 20, 2013

Just goes to show talent trumps technique.

Vaughn · Mar 20, 2013

Although Weston preferred an 8 x 10 camera (he rejoiced in “the precision
of a view box planted firmly on a sturdy tripod”), he made increasing
use while in Mexico of his 314 X 4lA Graflex —hand held even at exposures
as long as Vio second.

And in the California redwoods he lamented about his failed images under the redwoods -- due, he said, to his tripod (and 8x10) sinking into the duff during his long exposures. Something I can attest to! I always take pains to firmly plant my tripod...spikes help as does putting my 200+ pound weight on each leg to really sink them!

Vaughn

CMB · Mar 21, 2013

Weston's early choice of mount was "shirt-stiffner" cardboard that he purchased (cheaply and in bulk) in 1923/4 from a Mexican laundry. He would sign the mount (never the photograph) on the front along with the year the negative was made (and sometimes the title and print edition number). On the back, he would indicate the negative number (eg: "6 PO" for "Galvan Shooting") along with the price ($10). By 1932, he had run out of the shirt cardboard (which have by now all turned brown) and switched to another cardboard support which seems to have fared better (still white today). I don't know what kind of dry-mount tissue he used to adhere the print onto the mount, but none of my four Weston photographs, made between 1925 and 1933, show any signs of delamination.

Charles

tony lockerbie · Mar 21, 2013

Great reading Umut, thanks for that. As Eric says, the subject rules with Weston, and his equipment and working methods are a lesson to us all that gear does not matter a bit if the subject and technique are sound.
Still, great to muck around with all that gear

vpwphoto · Mar 23, 2013

I drove 250 miles to view a special E. Weston exhibition a decade ago. BTW I have a copy of the Verito mentioned above that I have not used enough.
THanks Mustafa for the post.

kevinjk · Mar 25, 2013

CMB

Which 4 prints do you have?

CMB · Mar 26, 2013

kevinjk said:
Which 4 prints do you have?

My mention of having four Weston prints was not meant to be boastful but rather to further illustrate, from personal experience, how this great artist,
using modest and simple materials, crafted some of the finest photographs ever made. And since most only get to see a Weston framed on the wall of
a museum, I thought that a description of his notes on the back of the mount would be of interest.

The prints are:

1. Steel, Ohio, 1922 (Armco Steel)

2. Galvan Shooting, Mexico, 1924

3. Succulent, 1930

4. Monterey Cypress, Pebble Beach, 1932

Charles

jp498 · Apr 4, 2013

I've seen some of Edward Weston's 3.25x4.25 pt/pd contact prints (of pictorialist style) in a museum and they are charming alternatives to big "straight" prints.

I think he could have 1-up'd himself even more if he limited himself to 1-2 soft focus lenses rather than a whole bunch as it's mind boggling difficult to deal with a bunch of them at once and get good results. The interest in great depth of field is much the opposite of most of us; we can have infinite depth of field with i-phones and small sensor cameras and are bored of it.

It's cool we have the same lenses available to us today, same cameras, same chemicals, similar papers (handmade pt/pd or michael/paula azo) and can have just as much fun and results as Edward Weston did.

whlogan · Jun 14, 2014

I had the great pleasure of working with Cole Weston for a few short but very fruitful years in and around Monterey during the 1970's and he taught me that one needs mainly to THINK about what one is doing and it matters not so much what equipment is sitting on the tripod as what thoughts are going on in the brain. I loved him. He was not so easy to work with or for, but I learned a great deal from him and Al Weber. Thank God for giants like these to teach midgets like us.
Logan

Edward Weston's Technique

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