Edward Weston Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• The great scientist dares to differ from accepted 'facts' - think irrationally - let the artist do likewise.

  Edward Weston

  Artist, Thinking, Facts

  Edward Weston (1971). “Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters”

  8 Copy quote

• Now one does not think during creative work: any more than one thinks when driving a car. One has a background of years — learning — unlearning— success — failure — dreaming — thinking — experience — back it goes — farther back than one's ancestors: all this, — then the moment of creation, the focussing of all into the moment. So I can make — "without thought" — fifteen carefully-considered negatives one every fifteen minutes, — given material with as many possibilities.

  Edward Weston

  Dream, Eye, Thinking

  "Daybooks".

  10 Copy quote

• It seems so utterly naive that landscape - not that of the pictorial school - is not considered of "social significance" when it has a far more important bearing on the human race of a given locale than excrescences called cities.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, School, Race

  Edward Weston, Leslie Squyres Calmes, Willard Van Dyke (1992). “The letters between Edward Weston and Willard Van Dyke”, Center for Creative Photography

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Vision, Patterns

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• In common with other artists the photographer wants his finished print to convey to others his own response to his subject. In the fulfillment 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 from 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.

  Edward Weston

  Art, Sight, Use

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

  6 Copy quote

• I have been photographing our toilet, that glossy enameled receptacle of extraordinary beauty. Here was every sensuous curve of the human figure divine but minus the imperfections. Never did the Greeks reach a more significant consummation to their culture, and it somehow reminded me, in the glory of its chaste convulsions and in its swelling, sweeping, forward movement of finely progressing contours, of the Victory of Samothrace.

  Edward Weston

  Home, Extraordinary Beauty, Curves

  7 Copy quote

• Art is based on order. The world is full of 'sloppy Bohemians' and their work betrays them.

  Edward Weston

  Art, Order, World

  Edward Weston (1973). “The Daybooks of Edward Weston: California”

  11 Copy quote

• An excellent conception can be quite obscured by faulty technical execution or clarified by faultless technique.

  Edward Weston

  Technique, Execution, Excellent

  8 Copy quote

• 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 palpitating flesh.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Steel, Substance

  Sarah M. Lowe, Tina Modotti, Edward Weston, Barbican Art Gallery (2004). “Tina Modotti & Edward Weston: the Mexico years”, Merrell Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• Is love like art - something always ahead, never quite attained.

  Edward Weston

  Art, Never Quit

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  10 Copy quote

• No photographer is better than the simplest of cameras

  Edward Weston

  Cameras, Photographer, Simplest

  8 Copy quote

• ......so called “composition” becomes a personal thing, to be developed along with technique, as a personal way of seeing.

  Edward Weston

  Technique, Way, Composition

  Edward Weston (1961). “Daybooks”

  16 Copy quote

• When money enters in - then, for a price, I become a liar - and a good one I can be whether with pencil or subtle lighting or viewpoint. I hate it all, but so do I support not only my family, but my own work.

  Edward Weston

  Hate, Liars, Support

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  7 Copy quote

• I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Want, Lenses

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  19 Copy quote

• Clouds, torsos, shells, peppers, trees, rocks, smoke stacks, are but interdependent, interrelated parts of a whole, which is life.

  Edward Weston

  Clouds, Rocks, Tree

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  12 Copy quote

• My work is never intellectual. I never make a negative unless emotionally moved by my subject.

  Edward Weston

  Intellectual, Negative, Subjects

  Brett Abbott, Edward Weston, J. Paul Getty Museum (2005). “Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum”, p.103, Getty Publications

  4 Copy quote

• The painters have no copyright on modern art!... I believe in, and make no apologies for, photography: it is the most important graphic medium of our day. It does not have to be, indeed cannot be - compared to painting - it has different means and aims.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Art, Believe

  Edward Weston (1971). “Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters”

  7 Copy quote

• Photography suits the temper of this age - of active bodies and minds. It is a perfect medium for one whose mind is teeming with ideas, imagery, for a prolific worker who would be slowed down by painting or sculpting, for one who sees quickly and acts decisively, accurately.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Ideas, Perfect

  7 Copy quote

• The photograph isolates and perpetuates a moment of time: an important and revealing moment, or an unimportant and meaningless one, depending upon the photographer's understanding of his subject and mastery of his process.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Understanding, Important

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

  14 Copy quote

• The creative force in man recognizes and records these rhythms with the medium most suitable to him, the object, or the moment, feeling the cause, the life within the outer form. Recording unfelt facts, acquired by rule, results in sterile inventory. To see the Thing Itself is essential: the quintessence revealed direct without the fog of impressionism - the casual noting of the superficial phase, a transitory mood.

  Edward Weston

  Creativity, Men, Fog

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  4 Copy quote

• To see the Thing itself is essential: the quintessence revealed direct without the fog of impressionism... This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock. Significant presentation - not interpretation.

  Edward Weston

  Rocks, Fog, Essentials

  Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”

  8 Copy quote

• I start with no preconceived idea - discovery excites me to focus - then rediscovery through the lens - final form of presentation seen on ground glass, the finished print previsioned completely in every detail of texture, movement, proportion, before exposure - the shutter's release automatically and finally fixes my conception, allowing no after manipulation - the ultimate end, the print, is but a duplication of all that I saw and felt through my camera.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Ideas, Glasses

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• ...the pepper is beginning to show signs of strain, and tonight should grace a salad. It has been suggested that I am a cannibal to eat my models.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Grace, Salad

  13 Copy quote

• My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea, even switch me to different subject matter. So I start out with my mind as free from image as the silver film on which I am to record, and I hope as sensitive.

  Edward Weston

  Eye, Ideas, Mind

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

  6 Copy quote

• I see my finished platinum print (in the viewfinder) in all its desired qualities, before my exposure.

  Edward Weston

  Photography, Quality, Exposure

  6 Copy quote

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