Paul Strand on Edward Weston

[Vaughn]

This thread made me pull out my copies of EW's Daybooks. Nicely indexed, I re-read the passages where Strand was mentioned. It is clear that they met in NY where Edward saw Strand's photographs (no mention of Paul looking at Edward's, but I would be surprised if it did not happen) and 2) Edward considered Strand to be a most excellent photographer...the best he saw in NY.

All mention of Strand are positive and it appears to me that Edward saw Paul as his East Coast equivilent.

The quote in the OP must have been made before Paul and Edward met in NY, though I could not definitely confirm it from the Daybooks.

Vaughn

[Bill_1856]

The quote in the OP must have been made before Paul and Edward met in NY, though I could not definitely confirm it from the Daybooks.

Vaughn

No, that letter was written in 1933 when Strand was in Taos, 11 years after they had met in NYC.
It is easy to see why Strand had Dissed Weston in 1922.
By then Strand had already made those incredible 1916 images which are still considered the seminal ikons of 20th Century photography, and more recently he had a one-man show at Stieglitz's galler, and two issues of Camera Works devoted to his pictures. In 1922 he was really "hot stuff in the Big Apple" photographically speaking.
By 1922 Weston was still in his Pictorial phase. Except for the industrial Armco images he had just made on the trip, the prints he showed Stieglitz, and presumably to Strand, were pretty old fashioned -- dreamy, soft-focus platinum prints which had won Weston acolades and medals in the Pictoral Salons of the day, but were eventually even repudiated by himself.
Strand's well-known extremely rigid personality was apparently unable to allow him to reevaluate Weston and his later work.
I don't think that I would have liked to be a drinking buddy with either of them.

[Vaughn]

...I don't think that I would have liked to be a drinking buddy with either of them.

Thanks for the correction, Bill. I certainly would not go drinking with Edward (nor with his son, Brett!) if I had a young lady on my arm...more than likely I would be going home alone!

But I would have loved to have partied on Wildcat Hill and have danced to his Mexican records with whatever other ladies might have shown up!

Vaughn