On Photography: Edward Weston
For Edward Weston, photography has the potential to reveal emotional insight into the nature of the world. While talking about photography in terms of film and the chemical process, his ideas on photography still resonate today in our age of digital imaging. In the following extracts, taken from his essay ‘Seeing Photographically’, he argues for a photography that transcends painterly conventions.
“Each medium of expression imposes its own limitations on the artist - limitations inherent in the tools, materials, or processes he employs. In the older art forms these natural confines are so well established they are taken for granted. We select music or dancing, sculpture or writing because we feel that within the frame of that particular medium we can best express whatever it is we have to say.”
“Among all the arts photography is unique by reason of its instantaneous recording process. The sculptor, the architect, the composer all have the possibility of making changes in, or additions to, their original plans while their work is in the process of execution. A composer may build up a symphony over a period of time; a painter may spend a lifetime working on a picture and still not consider it finished. But the photographer’s recording process cannot be drawn out. Within its brief duration, no stopping or changing or reconsidering is possible. When he uncovers his lens every detail within its field of vision is registered in far less time than it takes for his own eyes to transmit a similar copy of the scene to his brain.”
“Hence the photographer’s most important and likewise most difficult task is not learning to manage his camera, or to develop, or to print. It is learning to see photographically - that is, learning to see his subject matter in terms of the capacities of his tools and processes, so that he can instantaneously translate the elements and values in a scene before him into the photograph he wants to make.”
“Today’s photographer need not necessarily make his picture resemble a wash drawing in order to have it admitted as art, but he must abide by ‘the rules of composition.’ That is the contemporary nostrum. Now to consult rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. Such rules and laws are deduced from the accomplished fact; they are the products of reflection and after-examination, and are in no way a part of the creative impetus. When subject matter is forced to fit into preconceived patterns, there can be no freshness of vision. Following rules of composition can only lead to a tedious repetition of pictorial cliches.
……….Good composition is only the strongest way of seeing the subject. It cannot be taught because, like all creative effort, it is a matter of personal growth. In common with other artists the photographer wants his finished print to convey to others his own response to his subject. In the fulfilment of this aim, his greatest asset is the directness of the process he employs. But this advantage can only be retained if he simplifies his equipment and technic to the minimum necessary, and keeps his approach free from all formula, art-dogma, rules, and taboos. Only then can he be free to put his photographic sight to use in discovering and revealing the nature of the world he lives in.”
Extract from: Edward Weston, ‘Seeing Photographically’, in W. D. Morgan (ed.) (1964) The Encyclopedia of Photography, Volume 18.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,![[Post to Twitter]](http://fotoeire.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet ThisOn Photography: Ansel Adams
In this, the second in a series of extracts from writings by photographers, Ansel Adams recalls an encounter with a fellow photographer.
In 1983, while on one of my frequent visits to Point Lobos, I was sitting at one of the picnic benches changing film in my Leica R-4. A middle aged man, obviously a photographer, since he was festooned with several cameras, came and sat opposite me. He expressed astonishment that I was using a 35mm camera. I explained that I was not dedicated to any particular size and that I had used the 35mm extensively. I am often typed as a rigid large-format man in spite of the fact that I have done much work with smaller formats. With the new 35mm roll securely installed, I made a gesture of leaving when he said, “May I ask you a question?” I agreed to talk and relaxed for the inevitable.
His question was, “Mr. Adams, I’ve just read your book The Negative. You developed the Zone System over forty years ago. Do you think it is still effective?”
I replied that the function of the Zone System is to establish a working technique that enables the photographer better to manage creative visualizations. I do not think the Zone System is fully valid in creative photography without visualization of the expressive image before the exposure is made.
He asked, “But do you think the Zone System is necessary? Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston did not use it. Historically, the greater part of photographic work was accomplished without it. Why do you think it is so important?”
My answer to this seemed simple. “I think it essential to the beginner and extremely helpful to the advanced worker. I have no doubt that Edward and all the others arrived by empirical experiments and practice to a near-perfect intuitive method of work. In a sense they were obliged to use some applications of the Zone System, whether they knew it or not, as you cannot practice photography without utilizing the principles of sensitometry.”
He said, “I am not making myself clear. I look around me and see hundreds of photographers relying on camera electronics or simply exposing with random repetition, bracketing exposures to cover mistakes. If this seems to be the modern approach, do you feel your system continues to be relevant?”
I carefully considered my reply. I said, “Being trained in music, I was obliged to know my notes, to practice continuously so that the notes, phrase shapes, and dynamics would be securely established in my mind. My playing, therefore, was expressively intuitive, based on a thorough experience with the facts and structure of the scores.
“What you do not seem to understand is that after the Zone System is learned in detail, then it becomes an intuitive process in practice - a way of thinking and applying technical principles while visualization is taking place. If I had to work out the Zone System details from scratch with every photograph, I would fail as a photographer and artist. Visualization is in two principal steps:
“First, image management, which relates to the construction of the image as the lens delivers it to the film, and,
“Second, value management, which relates to the exposure and development of the negative, thereby securing the information for the expressive print.
“With practice this becomes a rapid process, almost entirely intuitive and immediate. I note, with regret, that many of the photographers of the day are not concerned with basic technique. Their work clearly shows this sad fact. There have been many excellent ideas rendered in ineffective craft; the message simply does not come through.”
He appeared thoughtful and I quickly added, “I note you have three different cameras around your neck. Do you really know what you are getting with any of them? Can you see the image in your mind’s eye, so to speak, before you release the shutter? Do you function on a hit-or-miss basis, hoping that with luck something will turn up in the negative or through darkroom labor? If so, I feel sorry for you as this is not necessary if you acquired the knowledge of sensitometry as taught in the Zone System. Yes, I continue to believe the Zone System represents a very important introduction to a fluid craft approach.”
He rose from the picnic table and said, “It’s too late for me. I do not have the time to work it out.” I found I had nothing to say in reply and saw him walk off to the cliffs, stand for a few moments looking at the crashing surf, then walk on until he was out of view. I moved out on the trail with my spot meter in one hand, my camera set at manual in the other.
I wondered if I had started something in his mind that became a burden adding to the spirit of uncertainty so many of us have. I was telling him it would take a lot of hard work, from which there is no escape if one wishes to be an artist in any medium. Musicians practice constantly; most photographers do not practice enough. The siren-call of the hobby obscures the necessary exactions of art. It is easy to take a photograph, but it is harder to make a masterpiece in photography than in any other art medium.
Extract from : Ansel Adams, An Autobiography
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) an American photographer famous for his black & white photographs of Yosemite National Park. developed the Zone System method of determining exposure and contrast in a photograph. His use of large-format cameras enabled him to capture images of high resolution. A founding member of ‘Group f64′, his images are regularly reproduced on calendars, posters and in books.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,On Photography: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
This is the first in an ongoing series of posts called ‘On Photography’. Each post will be an extract from the writings of a photographer or critic. This extract is by the Hungarian photographer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
In photography we possess an extraordinary instrument for reproduction. But photography is much more than that. Today it is a fair way to bringing (optically) something entirely new into the world. The specific elements of photography can be isolated from their attendant complications, not only theoretically, but tangibly, and in their manifest reality.
The eight varieties of photographic vision
1. Abstract seeing by means of direct records of forms produced by light: the photogram which captures the most delicate gradations of light values, both chiaroscuro and coloured.
2. Exact seeing by means of the normal fixation of the appearance of things: reportage.
3. Rapid seeing by means of the fixation of movements in the shortest possible time: snapshots.
4. Slow seeing by means of the fixation of movements spread over a period of time: e.g., the luminous tracks made by the headlights of motor cars passing along a road at night: prolonged time exposures.
5. Intensified seeing by means of:
a) micro-photography;
b) filter photography, which,by variation of the chemical composition of the sensitized surface, permits photographic potentialitiesto be augmented in various ways - ranging from the revelation of far-distant landscapes veiled in haze orfog to exposures in complete darkness: infra-red photography.
6. Penetrative seeing by means of X-rays: radiography.
7. Simultaneous seeing by means of transparent superimpositions: the future process of automatic photomontage.
8. Distorting seeing: optical jokes that can be automatically produced by:
a) exposure through a lens fitted with prisms, and the device of reflecting mirrors; or
b) mechanical and chemical manipulation of the negative after exposure.
Extract from: Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, ‘A New Instrument of Vision’ (1936)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946), a Hungarian painter and photographer, was a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry in the arts. While a Professor at the Bauhaus School, he experimented with the photographic process of exposing light sensitive paper with objects overlaid on top of it, called the photogram. Moholy-Nagy taught a diverse range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, photomontage and metal.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,
