For those in the Bay Area, Oakland's Museum of California is hanging a small show on the f/64 club who's members included Ansel Adams,Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Edward Weston and occasionally Preston Holder, Conseuella Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, and Brett Weston. across the way is a larger show of Dorothea Langue's work.
My guess on entries, more peppers and nautilus shells, than contorted nudes or toilets.
I hate to admit it, but I cannot be the only one who saw this challenge and the first thought was "Who???"
Up until a few minutes ago I had no idea as well but a quick look at one of the links provided (thanks) I feel this is a challenge I will like to enter.
He has quite a few portraits in his portfolio - 3000 images posted here. Would a face fare better than a pepper?
Looking at this link, it would seem most of his photos were printed with a definite lack of contrast. They are mostly grey in tone. Is that because of the printing technique used... gelatin silver print?
Just checking. The other link to the Weston family website shows much more tonal depth to his images.
What are everyone's thoughts on his style then... rich highlights and shadows or dull greys?
He has quite a few portraits in his portfolio - 3000 images posted here. Would a face fare better than a pepper?
Looking at this link, it would seem most of his photos were printed with a definite lack of contrast. They are mostly grey in tone. Is that because of the printing technique used... gelatin silver print?
Just checking. The other link to the Weston family website shows much more tonal depth to his images.
What are everyone's thoughts on his style then... rich highlights and shadows or dull greys?
That's the reproduction process at CCP (the Center for Creative Photography). They are just documenting what they have in their archives, not posting "pure" examples of the images. I've seen many of the Weston and Adams originals, and they are much richer, tonally, than these web versions show.
It's interesting (or maybe not) that people we consider masters have genres they are clearly masterful at and genres they seem to be quite mundane in. In looking at the original link way above we can see that Weston was at his best shooting Nudes or other things (like veggies) where the contours shape the light in dynamic ways. But when we move over to "landscape, clouds, etc" it really becomes unimpressive and almost experimental (and not in a good way). Personally I'd feel taken advantage of if I spent $4,000 for a cloud in the sky versus $15,000 for one of his nudes.
This isn't a knock against him, but rather just an understanding that not every photograph taken by a celebrated photographer is worthy of celebration.
If you go click on the picture and move your mouse over the picture on the new page that opens up you can see those amazing details and f/64 mentioned here before Details of his prints
It's interesting (or maybe not) that people we consider masters have genres they are clearly masterful at and genres they seem to be quite mundane in. In looking at the original link way above we can see that Weston was at his best shooting Nudes or other things (like veggies) where the contours shape the light in dynamic ways. But when we move over to "landscape, clouds, etc" it really becomes unimpressive and almost experimental (and not in a good way). Personally I'd feel taken advantage of if I spent $4,000 for a cloud in the sky versus $15,000 for one of his nudes.
This isn't a knock against him, but rather just an understanding that not every photograph taken by a celebrated photographer is worthy of celebration.
Bear in mind also that the U of Arizona CCP is the historical archive for Weston, Adams, and many other "great" photographers, and that the images you see in their catalog are pretty comprehensive, there are thousands of them. So a lot of these, just like the pictures you and I take on a weekly/monthly basis, don't amount to much at all. These people were only human. Not every example of any artist's work is gonna be a masterpiece, that goes without saying. Weston did have some fantastic landscapes, but he tended to work in a much more realistic vein than Adams, who romanticized the Western landscape pretty dramatically, in his most iconic images. Yet even with Adams, when you look at the archives, you see image after image of a rather pedestrian quality.
Adams, after all, was the one who said that a year that gave him 12 images of substance and value was a good year...
