Edward Weston Show

[Barry Trabitz]

An Exhibit of Edward Weston's photographs opens Saturday 16 September at the The Wadsworth Athaneum Museum of Art in Hartford Connecticut. I believe over 100 prints will be on exhibit, many that have never been published. The show will run through 31 December

[John Powers]

Great show. My wife and I drove to Dayton from Cleveland to see it before it went to CT. We stayed the night and saw it again the next day. The exhibit book is especially good considering the low price.

John

[chris_4622]

I was able to travel to the east coast to see this exhibit and I recommend it highly. The only drawback was the lighting. The museum has the lights so low it was disturbing, but I guess it's better than not being able to view the photographs at all.

[Ted Harris]

Does anyone know if this is a different exhibit than the one that was at the Portlad, ME Museum a couple of years ago?

[Merg Ross]

Unfortunately, low illumination of photographs in museums is typical these days. In the case of Weston's prints it is a real shame. He printed for viewing by strong natural light and much of the beauty of his prints is lost by low illumination. However, there are preservation concerns, hence the use of low light levels.

[Kirk Gittings]

I just saw a Strand show in Santa Fe. At first glance it appeared that it was underlit but on close inspection most of the prints lookes fine but there were a group of dark moody prints, an approach I do not normally associate with Strand. But the lighting was the same for all, leading me to think that the dark prints were intentional. The dark prints were both p/p and silver from a number of different collections.

[Andrew Clearfield]

Strand often printed for the deep values. Many of his subjects were low-key as well. Since he preferred matte surfaces, that makes them look dark, and almost muddy at times, especially behind glass. Since he insisted on using crappy lithographer's varnish rather than something more permanent, they need to keep the illumination low to make the conservator's job easier. That doesn't explain the Westons however. His technique was immaculate, as was his son's (Brett made many editions of his father's prints after Edward was stricken with Parkinson's Disease) and those prints should really glow. I think the conservator is either being overly careful, or they are simply used to displaying all graphics under low illumination, since some of them (pastels, chalk-enriched drawings, etc.) are light-sensitive.

[jshanesy]

Unfortunately, low illumination of photographs in museums is typical these days. In the case of Weston's prints it is a real shame. He printed for viewing by strong natural light and much of the beauty of his prints is lost by low illumination. However, there are preservation concerns, hence the use of low light levels.

Sometimes we are victorious. I know that Paul Paletti got the J.B. Speed Museum in Louisville to turn up the illumination on a Friends of Photography Ansel Adams show after weeks of intense lobbying. Adams had written about what he thought was an appropriate level of illimination in candles per square ft.

Paul managed to find some of these passages which were instrumental in jawboning the exhibitors. If we keep after them maybe we can change some attitudes.

[Barry Trabitz]

The Hartford Weston show is very different from the Portland show.