Brett Westons blacks

[Dan Smith]

Brett Weston was noted for his great contrast & blacks... among other things. Did he expose to push the blacks down lower on the scale in the negs or get this working in the darkroom on the print? If it is done deliberately by placing shadows lower it isn't underexposure. Is this how he did it? As to contrast, exposure & development to pop the contrast which is almost litho work on some of the prints? I know later in life he used 6x7cm format and I am interested in that but mainly the LF contact prints he did.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'm sure he did all the usual things plus I'm fairly sure he developed his prints in amidol. Amidol with a paper that responds to it like Azo or Cachet/Maco Expo RF can produce the densest blacks.

[Eric Woodbury]

He did use amidol, thus the black fingernails.

His shadows are so black because he burned them down. I understand he didn't like to leave detail in the deep shadows, just blackness. Under-exposure would leave muddy shadows.

[lee\c]

It has always been my impression that if you used Amidol for a film developer then the shadows would be blank. Amidol is said to "dump the shadows". Is this correct?

leec

[Dan Smith]

No, Amidol doesn't dump the shadows. If you place the lower zones so you don't get detail & develop for the highlights you can get the contrast to do tricks. Using Amidol gets a really good black and as long as the neg has good shadow detail you can get it to come out in the print with Amidol provided your paper, neg & processing make for that detail.

I was wondering at Brett Westons methods as his contrast works for him & looks great in so many images. Don't know if I would print the shadow detail down that way but the images he did sure look nice.

[neil poulsen]

I know that he used Oriental paper for some of his later portfolios. He needed paper just to do some test prints, and someone bought Oriental. It worked out so well, he decided to use it for the final prints.

[Merg Ross]

As we are sadly aware, the materials available to Brett no longer exist. When I first met him (1950's) for his 8x10 negatives he used Isopan film developed in ABC Pyro. He printed on Haloid Industro paper developed in Amidol. He seldom, if ever, used a light meter and had no use for the Zone System. For his later 6x6 and 6x7 work he used slow film developed in Rodinal and printed on Oriental Seagull paper developed in Amidol. For much of this work he used a point source light.

[Donald Miller]

I was "put off" when I first encountered actual prints made by Brett. My tastes have improved since then and I acknowledge Brett's images as probably my favorite photographs ever made. His abstracts are phenominal.

Amidol is great stuff...expensive but good.

[Dan Smith]

Merg,

Do you know what papers he migrated to as his favored supplies left the marketplace? The contact printing papers he used? As for his later 6x6/6x7 negs, what point light source did he end up using? As for his contact printing, was his setup as simple as his father used for years? I know he was very selective in what he photographed rather than shooting everything & then editing... at least later in his career that I am aware of. Was this more of a gradual maturing of vision or was it something he seemed to be more aware of while younger? Possibly as the result of being exposed to his fathers influence/work for so long? His work & his fathers is very different though both had a strong, directed vision. Do you know if he consciously worked at being 'different' from his dad?

[Annie M.]

According to Peter Nabokov's interview of November 1982....

B. Weston made contact prints 'using light from an ordinary bulb, controlled with a rheostat'

He used an amidol print developer slightly different from the one made famous by his father: Water 3.5 liters Sodium Sulphite 90 grams Amidol 40 grams Citric Acid 'just a pinch' Potassium Bromide (10% solution) 4 milliliters 70 F for 2-4 minutes ....he would at times slightly underexpose and overdevelop.

With earlier papers he toned his prints but with the Oriental paper he found no need for it. Oriental supplied him with free paper in exchange for using 'Holland Canal" in their ads.

Enlargers..... Durst 138s & Durst 184....

And perhaps most importantly he kept a loaded pistol in the darkroom.... My understanding is that his work was 'different' from his Father's right from the beginning and he cites influences of Henry Moore, Kandinsky & Miro...he also describes the Half Dome as 'remote and unphotogenic'......hope this helps.