Is Edward Weston falling "out of favor?"

[Bill_1856]

1. the Daybooks. Re-editing is not necessary nor is a new version.
Actually an annotated version is needed (IMHO). It was not until reading the Modoti biographies that I appreciated much of what he wrote in the Mexican volume.
2. a Ben Maddow version of the Daybooks; his biography of Weston is probably the worst ever written.
Why so? It's a lot better than nothing!

[Moopheus]

I wonder what sort of funding would make such a project possible?

--Darin

I guess it would depend on the nature of the publication, and how much time it would take for someone to transcribe and edit the pages. They'd probably have to be able to spend some time in AZ with the archive. The idea of annotations sounds cool. $50K at a minimum would be my guess, more if you wanted to do, say, scans of the pages, online archive, that sort of thing. $100-200K. For a nice professional job. Kickstarter anyone? Wonder if they'd go for it.

Just reprinting an existing edition would be somewhat less expensive, obviously, but would likely require at least new typesetting.

[Steve Sherman]

IMHO it takes years to leave behind the grandeur of the western landscapes made famous by AA and others. EW could find beauty in the mundane and only after years of pursuing the same craft do I begin to understand the magnitude of his vision and talent.

Had the good fortune to see a "project print" (those printed by Brett of Pepper #30), EW thought Brett printed with too much contrast and did not care for Brett's rendering. It is he single most beautiful Black and White I have ever seen.

EW's grandson Kim told me that EW only made 7 original Pepper # 30 prints in his entire lifetime !

[Kirk Gittings]

a friend of mine has a Brett printed Pepper. It is indeed beautiful.

[Merg Ross]

Well, I guess I'm not yet convinced. Who knows what surprises the original Daybooks might hold, especially if edited by someone *without* a personal connection to Weston, and especially now so many years later when readers' view of sex, etc has changed so much.

It would be a treasure trove for all things Weston and as one of the most important photographers of the 20th Century it certainly deserves to be done.

I wonder what sort of funding would make such a project possible?

--Darin

I am not sure what you mean by the "original" Daybooks. Edward destroyed a large portion of his entries, so the "original" Daybooks do not exist. The two Daybooks under discussion represent the remaining manuscripts.

Let Edward Weston be represented by his photographs. Those are what really matter, and as we pass through the present period, his work will rise to even greater stature. I have no sense that it has fallen "out of favor".

Having said that, more will be written of the man, as has been done with Group f:64. It is always safe to do so when all of the players are deceased, but Maddow made the mistake of writing about a man he never met while most of the players, other than Edward, were still alive. They called him out on his fabrications of the truth, hence I am not alone in my opinion of the Maddow book.

[Darin Boville]

Interesting: http://www.largeformatphotography.in...l=1#post110744

--Darin

[bigdog]

In the near future:

http://www.cartermuseum.org/exhibiti...d-brett-weston

I've traveled across the country to see Weston work. Now I'll have some only across town for a few months. Bet I go more than once ...

[Mark Sampson]

Well, The Phillips Collection has just taken down the Weston 'Nautilus Shells' that had been on display for the past couple of months. Along with the Caponigro, Brett Weston, Callahan, Siskind, Aansel Adams, Strand, Steiglitz and Minor White prints that had hung alongside it. They were replaced by Robert Motherwell paintings, but I don't think that it means that E. Weston (or any of those photographers) is going out of style.

[Drew Wiley]

Yuk. I actually showed alongside Motherwell once. Total mismatch. Makes me wish acrylic pigments were never invented. Lots of overlapping tape lines, hardly mixed pigment colors etc. Not my favorite asbract expressionist by any means, though he does apparently resonate stongly with some people if you take in those
big painting from a moderate distance. Maybe I'm jaded because I close into those things, and admire fine brushwork when its present. I don't like it when you can
see their hand and all their mind-changes. Mondrian was another one that left conspicuous overpainted tape lines all over the place.

[Gary Nylander]

Let Edward Weston be represented by his photographs. Those are what really matter, and as we pass through the present period, his work will rise to even greater stature. I have no sense that it has fallen "out of favor".

Great quote, Merg, Edward Weston has been one of my photographic inspirations, thank goodness he left us his Day Books and of course his fine photography.