Fifty photographs : Edward Weston. Plate no. 13

Fifty photographs : Edward Weston. Plate no. 13

Fifty photographs : Edward Weston / Merle Armitage, Donald Bear, Robinson Jeffers, Edward Weston

A Photographic Look at the New American West (Exhibition : 2008)

The receipt of a 1937 Guggenheim fellowship afforded Weston the opportunity to return to his long-held interest in landscape photography, particularly of the American West. Weston summarized his highly personal aims for this genre in his statement of purpose for the fellowship. For Weston the photograph is “not just documentation of a given subject matter, but its sublimation, --the revealing of its significance. I have no desire to make a pictorial record of the 'Western Scene'; rather I want to photograph MY Western Scene.” -- This book, which followed the major 1946 Whitney retrospective, is a celebration of Weston's career. Among the fifty previously unpublished photographs hand selected by Weston are images that originated from the Guggenheim fellowship. -- Edward Weston initialed this copy.

A Photographic Look at the New American West. -- The landscape of the American West has long been a subject for photographers. The advent of photography in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of easier methods of photographic reproduction corresponded with the western expansion of the nation. Photographic documentation augmented the reports issued as part of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories and photography was capturing the wondrous archaeological discoveries being made, as well as capturing the vestiges of Native American culture. Civic boosters, hotel resorts and railway lines were using photography in promotional material to woo visitors to the western states. -- The post-World War II American West was a very different place. As the public claimed what was once open space for development the wilderness that characterized the west became increasingly scarce and therefore more precious. Remaining wilderness areas, such as the National Parks, provided photographic inspiration for photographers beyond the mere documentary, ornamental, or promotional. Images of the West became, in addition, a vehicle for personal expression, whether it was the awe-inspiring grandeur revealed by Ansel Adams, the bittersweet nostalgia expressed by Wright Morris, or the ubiquitous, scarring hand of man found in the work of Robert Adams. -- All of the works shown are from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library.

CAI copy included in Library exhibition titled "A Photographic Look at the New American West" held February 27 - May 21, 2008

Item exhibited open (no. 13 -- Dunes, Oceano 1936)

Exhibition webpage: http://www.clarkart.edu/museum_programs/exhibitions_past_detail.cfm?EID=65

Weston, Edward, 1886-1958

New York : Duell Sloan & Pearce, c1947

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Library

16 p., 50 p. of plates, [6] p. : ill. ; 32 cm

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