My father's Clarinet teacher & Edward Weston

[Ken Lee]

When my father retired he took up the Clarinet, which he had played during the Swing Band era many years earlier. He found a retired Clarinet player and started taking lessons. The teacher told my father that on the Clarinet, the most important thing is to have a good tone. “People will listen to just about anything you play, if your tone is beautiful”.

Here’s an illustration of that principle, an Edward Weston portrait which I saw today for the first time. I doubt everyone would see this as a good portrait: it’s crooked, the lady is looking out of the photo, etc.

It’s only a JPG file but there’s something extraordinary about the placement of tones next to one another: this was one of Weston’s magical powers and Brett had it too. The original must be very striking, especially as a super sharp 8x10 contact print.


http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/WestonBessieJones.jpg
Bessie Jones, 1941
Edward Weston

[Tin Can]

Thanks Ken,

I have a lot of trouble figuring out tone. As in what viewers mean when they say 'look at those tones' or 'great tones". Once in a rare moon they might say that about one of my prints, but it just goes right over my head.

I nod and say nothing.

I hope to learn something in the replies.

[Dugan]

Oliver Gagliani had tones.

[Tin Can]

https://www.westongallery.com/oliver-gagliani

[Mark Sampson]

I don't see anything wrong with that portrait. It's new to me, and I thank you for sharing it.
Edward Weston knew exactly what he was doing; he could 'see' photographically as well as anyone who has ever lived. One part of that 'seeing' is knowing when tones work together, as here. He didn't do much explaining... he just showed it to us.

[jp]

The crooked lines show to me it's an authentic older building and also that photographer was breaking some of the type-a personality rules we associate with large format photography in terms of getting the lines right because we can, etc... It makes the photo more about the person than the mechanics. But the tones are great.. We who seek good tones see the mechanics in this, other people perhaps it silently adds overall quality, like the music teacher alluded to.

The composition in contemporary terms is pretty much simple rule of thirds for head placement. The old style of composition which Weston would have known but neglected to mention could have been notan, where composition was the tones in a harmonious arrangement. Dow's book on this style of composition was widely read in the generation of Weston by regular art people. I'd also read into a bit and say it took on religious qualities or at least applied some religious style in that the subject is neatly within an alcove like a respected statue of a saint. Like she just stepped out of the (door) alcove to be real.

As a photographer with B&W film, I have to keep it simple... One developer, 1-2 films, and rare use of filters. Only then can I get an intuitive feel for what tones parts of the image will take on. If I were changing film and materials all the time, I wouldn't be reliable.

[Peter Lewin]

Ken, I find it interesting that you post this, because of all the photographers who post images on this site, I recognize yours instantly because of your control of tonal values. Even with images that in other hands I might consider banal, when you have presented tham I immediately think, "wow, what attracted Ken are the infinite shades of black, white, and grey, and how they relate to each other."

[Ken Lee]

http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/OceanoBrett.png
Oceano Dunes
Brett Weston, 1984

Again, this is only a digital file but at times is seems that Brett carried his father's mastery of tonality to an even higher level of sophistication.

[Merg Ross]

When my father retired he took up the Clarinet, which he had played during the Swing Band era many years earlier. He found a retired Clarinet player and started taking lessons. The teacher told my father that on the Clarinet, the most important thing is to have a good tone. “People will listen to just about anything you play, if your tone is beautiful”.

Here’s an illustration of that principle, an Edward Weston portrait which I saw today for the first time. I doubt everyone would see this as a good portrait: it’s crooked, the lady is looking out of the photo, etc.

It’s only a JPG file but there’s something extraordinary about the placement of tones next to one another: this was one of Weston’s magical powers and Brett had it too. The original must be very striking, especially as a super sharp 8x10 contact print.


http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/WestonBessieJones.jpg
Bessie Jones, 1941
Edward Weston

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the good thread. This is a seldom seen photo from the Whitman trip because the publisher chose not to include it in the book; or many other of his finest from the trip, much to Edward's disappointment. There is a print in the Lane Collection at the MFA in Boston, I believe.

Adding to the characteristics you note in the photograph, is the fascinating story of Bessie Jones' life. A search should find an oral interview.

As for Edward and Brett, they had an understanding of light. I believe the two photos (this and Brett's, Ocaeno) were taken on overcast days. And Brett, more than his dad, was intent on revealing form.

This thread reminds me of your 2010 series, "These I like." Are you considering reviving it?

Best,
Merg

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

Short: There is nothing crooked. Everything' s straight. The cross is the key. And the old house a metaphor of a life with sun and rain.

Long: You talk about "composition" but you mean "disposition" as a distribution of data on the surface of the picture. Whereas "composition" is a development in time, that is the result of successive perception, of the disposition, of course. Like a fugue of J.S. Bach in D major. The comparison with the clarinet is very good, imho.

This composition starts (for me) with the brilliant, sparkling cross. It is framed by the collar. It amplifies the visual movement in direction of the plank contours, whereas the person itself stays vertically oriented in this amplification - as an amplification of the crosswise directions.

The tones of the planks repeat the tone of the flesh and the clothing. This is an amplification, too. Vertical lamination of the planks repeat the vertical setting of the figure and the horizontal extensions of the planks repeat the universal claims of the branches of the cross.

The figure or protagonist stays in the center and in the origin of this composition. The head, the collar: a bloomy blossom to the light, full of human kindness. It's a human being in which religious or at least good faith meets with the shaped reality of life. This meeting is a singularity, origin of an everlasting - perhaps jazzy - fugue in D major ...

[Leszek Vogt]

http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/OceanoBrett.png
Oceano Dunes
Brett Weston, 1984

Again, this is only a digital file but at times is seems that Brett carried his father's mastery of tonality to an even higher level of sophistication.


I've lived near those dunes back in '84. Brett manipulated this shot quite heavily to give him that sensual touch.

Les

[Ken Lee]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the good thread. This is a seldom seen photo from the Whitman trip because the publisher chose not to include it in the book; or many other of his finest from the trip, much to Edward's disappointment. There is a print in the Lane Collection at the MFA in Boston, I believe.

Adding to the characteristics you note in the photograph, is the fascinating story of Bessie Jones' life. A search should find an oral interview.

As for Edward and Brett, they had an understanding of light. I believe the two photos (this and Brett's, Ocaeno) were taken on overcast days. And Brett, more than his dad, was intent on revealing form.

This thread reminds me of your 2010 series, "These I like." Are you considering reviving it?

Best,
Merg

Thanks for that background information. Many of us (like me) are limited to what appears in books.

I don't know about reviving the series but an unintended consequence of this thread has been to make me aware of the potential of genuine monochrome images (not toned), which I had previously overlooked. Ever since seeing Strand's photos in the 1970's, I have always striven for a "bronze" quality but I am reconsidering this prejudice.

It strikes me as harder to make beautiful images in real black and white: a bit like doing a high-wire act without a net :-)

[Merg Ross]

I've lived near those dunes back in '84. Brett manipulated this shot quite heavily to give him that sensual touch.

Les
Hello Les,

I would have to disagree that Brett manipulated this print heavily. Of course, all photographs are a manipulation of sorts.

He made a similar photograph at the Oceano Dunes in 1934, fifty years earlier. This photograph is simply the result of Brett's vision, and the way he exposed and printed his negatives. My guess is that this is a near straight print from an 8x10 negative. He was a master of craft and vision.

[Ken Lee]

http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/BrettWestonUntitled.jpg
Untitled, 1972
Brett Weston
© The Estate of Brett Weston / Bridgeman Copyright

Here's another of many photographs I've never seen before, viewable online at the Minneapolis Museum of Art (https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Brett%20Weston)

[Merg Ross]

Ken, do you have Art Wright's DVD of "Brett Weston Photographer"? It has over 800 of his photographs from the BW Archive. Well worth the price.

Merg

http://www.brettwestonphotographer.com/

[PRJ]

Thanks for posting that link Ken.

[Ken Lee]

Ken, do you have Art Wright's DVD of "Brett Weston Photographer"? It has over 800 of his photographs from the BW Archive. Well worth the price.

Merg

http://www.brettwestonphotographer.com/

No - I have never seen it. Thank you Merg !

[Merg Ross]

No - I have never seen it. Thank you Merg !

Most welcome, Ken. As further inticement, you will see yours truly photographing with Brett at Point Lobos! Ha,ha!

[Drew Wiley]

My favorite Brett book on my bookshelf has that dune picture on the front cover. It's almost a metaphor for a nude. But technique-wise, he's the photographer who basically pioneered the use of blacked-out shapes for their graphic quality. So he shot and developed accordingly. Interestingly, even though I started out as a color photographer, I ran into a graphically-shadowed piece of deep red petrified wood in Arizona which reminded me of the kind of thing Brett would have been attracted to; so I took a 4X5 Ektachrome of it and printed it boldy in Cibachrome, with blacked-out shadows. The gallery owner stuck it in the front window in Carmel, and when I returned there a couple weeks later, there was a kind note from Brett about it. It's one of two prints he is said to have purchased that are still on display somewhere in the Pebble Beach complex after all these years, according to a photographer friend who organizes big golf events there. It amazes me how Brett basically did things almost the same way for decades. But all along, he tended to improve within that same vein. Toward the end, his prints seemed to get a bit more metaphysical or layered. Merg is one of the few people I can think of who has successfully adopted a similar style of discipline. I bounce back n forth all over the place, from one style to another, from color to b&w n'back, not to mention I'm a format schizophrenic. But I enjoy the variety, and it doesn't seem to get diluted in any particular segment by doing that.

[Merg Ross]

Ken, please excuse me for trespassing on your thread; I thought you might enjoy the background to the making of Art Wright's film on Brett. Scroll down to the next to last post.

https://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?146922-Brett-Weston-safelight&highlight=brett+weston+safelight

[DonJ]

Ken, do you have Art Wright's DVD of "Brett Weston Photographer"? It has over 800 of his photographs from the BW Archive. Well worth the price.

Merg

http://www.brettwestonphotographer.com/

I enjoyed the sample clip showing him photographing one of my favorite subjects. I think I need to see more; thanks for the link.

[Ken Lee]

http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/OKeefeSteiglitz1923.jpg
Georgia O'Keefe, 1923
Alfred Stieglitz

Another example.

[Michael Kadillak]

When my father retired he took up the Clarinet, which he had played during the Swing Band era many years earlier. He found a retired Clarinet player and started taking lessons. The teacher told my father that on the Clarinet, the most important thing is to have a good tone. “People will listen to just about anything you play, if your tone is beautiful”.

Here’s an illustration of that principle, an Edward Weston portrait which I saw today for the first time. I doubt everyone would see this as a good portrait: it’s crooked, the lady is looking out of the photo, etc.

It’s only a JPG file but there’s something extraordinary about the placement of tones next to one another: this was one of Weston’s magical powers and Brett had it too. The original must be very striking, especially as a super sharp 8x10 contact print.


http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/WestonBessieJones.jpg
Bessie Jones, 1941
Edward Weston

Edwards longstanding experience with pyro and his capability to engage its inherent developing energy to separate tonalities is simply legendary. Materials of the day such as thick emulsion films and silver chloride printing papers (capable of fully complimenting a robust full bodied negative) produced prints that pull you in visually and allow Edward the ability to express himself as he intended. The results speak for themselves.

[Joe O'Hara]

http://www.kennethleegallery.com/images/forum/BrettWestonUntitled.jpg
Untitled, 1972
Brett Weston
© The Estate of Brett Weston / Bridgeman Copyright

Here's another of many photographs I've never seen before, viewable online at the Minneapolis Museum of Art (https://collections.artsmia.org/search/Brett%20Weston)

Wow. That's a beauty.

[Joe O'Hara]

Ken Lee said: "It strikes me as harder to make beautiful images in real black and white: a bit like doing a high-wire act without a net".

That's more challenging than playing tennis without a net, for sure!

I think the key is to make a photograph when you feel a kind of love, or gratitude, for the subject. All else follows from that.

Weston's last images that he made in Carmel, which I had the chance to see not so long ago, seem to show this.
Also those of certain other photographers. It doesn't seem to matter all that much what the subject is. We are all a part
of Nature, quite indistinguishable from the rest, from just a little distance away.

[Drew Wiley]

I preferred EW's earlier images, and many of his mid-career classics. But some of his later work seemed more neat (orderly) and clinical. I got to see some of his original prints long before I ever saw any of AA's actual prints. But I consider Brett to be a better printer than either of them. I've seen Steiglitz's master print of that O'Keefe image too. Quite a different feel than either of the Weston's work. Can't remember if it was on printing out paper, but something contact-wise fairly warm olive-toned. EW made a lot of so-so prints. A lot of his "reject pile" turned up long afterwards in a particular private gallery collection someone in Carmel had inherited. They didn't sell well. I never keep dud prints unless I want a specific reminder on hand how to reprint it better. Every darkroom needs a serious trashcan.

[Merg Ross]

I preferred EW's earlier images, and many of his mid-career classics. But some of his later work seemed more neat (orderly) and clinical. I got to see some of his original prints long before I ever saw any of AA's actual prints. But I consider Brett to be a better printer than either of them. I've seen Steiglitz's master print of that O'Keefe image too. Quite a different feel than either of the Weston's work. Can't remember if it was on printing out paper, but something contact-wise fairly warm olive-toned. EW made a lot of so-so prints. A lot of his "reject pile" turned up long afterwards in a particular private gallery collection someone in Carmel had inherited. They didn't sell well. I never keep dud prints unless I want a specific reminder on hand how to reprint it better. Every darkroom needs a serious trashcan.

Brett was a master at printing his own negatives. A better printer than Edward or Ansel? I don't think so, Drew.

[Michael Kadillak]

I was able to find the DVD Brett Weston Photographer by Art Wright that I acquired years ago. Will enjoy it again along with the archived images. Thankfully someone (ie Art) was able to get Brett to do the video.

[Drew Wiley]

I certainly respect your background and opinion, Merg; but I've never considered AA a master printer. And I have good reasons for stating that. He was extremely disciplined at getting what he wanted out of the light; and I should know, having spent my entire life in both the Sierras and here on the coast. So I know better than most what has the "feel" of authenticity, and what does not. But I guess I never cared much for his predictable Dektolish lack of tonal nuance (by tone I am implying "toning", not gray scale control). Brett's prints had something special I could see clear across a room, a kind of glow to them like a daring ice skater right on the edge. I also consider him one of the very few photographers who can be said to have made a true contribution to abstract art per se. No photograph containing actual subject matter can be claimed to be an actual abstraction. But he had a feel for the same kind of visual elements. Most of what people call photographic abstraction nowadays are just predictably decorative pattern studies with no Gestalt to them. I don't try to imitate either of those men, or EW either. Perhaps because I was a color photographer first, I tend to see black and white prints in color too, and am extremely aware of hue nuances in them. It's a big deal to me. And although BW aimed toward very rich neutral blacks, somehow that marriage of Seagull and amidol sang in a manner few other prints achieve. Nowadays it is simpler with the high quality of certain VC papers, but it still takes a special eye to translate that potential into something remarkable.

[Merg Ross]

Thanks Drew. Perhaps I did not express my thought well. I was suggesting that Brett was a master printer of his own negatives, with an intended result. Sure enough, you can pick out his prints from across the room. However, Edward and Ansel were also masters of conveying what they wanted to in their prints. Three masters, three different results. So, you prefer one result to another. However, all three were, in my opinion, master printers. Not really a competition, simply different styles of printing.

As an aside, I was there when Brett was printing Edward's 50th Anniversary Portfolio in Edward's darkroom, and later the Print Project from 800 negatives. It was a very difficult time for both of them because Brett could never make a print the same as Edward's. Over and over, he was sent back to the darkroom to get Edward's approval. The prints were for the most part magnificent, especially those in the 50th Anniversary Portfolio, but they were not Edward's. I think Cole came closer to printing as Edward would have, partly the reason Edward chose him for the task in his Will.

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks for all these stories, Merg. I got my limited knowledge second-hand from a family friend of the Westons who is still regularly down there. I kinda felt sorry for Cole having to print all those negs by his father for sale, when his own gravitation was more in color, but he obviously got good at it. And I of necessity had quite a bit of interaction with the photographic gallery scene in the area at one time, both operators and clients, so got to see a lot of prints by all of these people. It's just that I was exposed to EW's actual prints much earlier. Most of my interaction as a child was with serious painters. Yes, I love the work of all these persons, but for quite different reasons, plus that of quite a few other photographers. Any while I don't emulate any of them, I do enjoy and admire all kinds of work that has little in common with mine. But, as you already know, I can get kinda gruff on pretenders more interested in making a buck on stereotypical fare than taking time to actually look at things in depth. Sorry if that might annoy some people.

[Michael Kadillak]

Ken, do you have Art Wright's DVD of "Brett Weston Photographer"? It has over 800 of his photographs from the BW Archive. Well worth the price.

Merg

http://www.brettwestonphotographer.com/

I was able to load up my copy of the DVD and because my previous computer went straight to the video I had no idea of the number of and the quality of Brett's images included. The personal collection was like looking through his personal scrapbook. Just amazing.

[Kevin J. Kolosky]

I think the true art is being out there looking.