Edward Weston

This gorgeous monograph, edited by researcher Maggia (New Photography in Britain), featuring an essay by Chiara Dall’Olio and published on the occasion of an exhibition mounted by Modena, Italy’s Fondazione Fotographia, celebrates the famed American photographer’s oeuvre with a selection of images from his career. Weston (1886–1958) was a fierce proponent of realism in photography, arguing, “The camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance and quintessence of the thing itself, whether it be polished steel or palpating flesh.” The photographs here are closely cropped and sharply focused; through Weston’s lens, vegetables, bodies, skyscrapers, and landscapes are stripped of visual context and become wondrous and strange. Photographs taken miles and decades apart are paired to emphasize the architectural, textural, and tonal resonances that caught Weston’s eye: a swooping cloud mimics an arching aqueduct; Henry Fonda with his arms akimbo echoes the v-shaped eaves of a half-destroyed house; striations on a sand dune resemble the hatchings on a melon’s skin. These witty juxtapositions testify to the transformative power of Weston’s vision, and his desire to depict forms of “universal appeal... [that indicate] or symbolize life rhythms.” 110 duotone illus. (Sept.)