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.

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