Edward Weston Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn't photogenic.”
-- Edward Weston -
“If I have any 'message' worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.”
-- Edward Weston -
“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it.”
-- Edward Weston -
“Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it my be.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers
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“I would say to any artist: Don't be repressed in your work, dare to experiment, consider any urge, if in a new direction all the better.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston (1971). “Edward Weston: The Flame of Recognition: His Photographs Accompanied by Excerpts from the Daybooks & Letters”
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“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Brett Abbott, Edward Weston, J. Paul Getty Museum (2005). “Edward Weston: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum”, p.60, Getty Publications
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“Now, to consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravity before going for a walk.”
-- Edward Weston -
“Ultimately success or failure in photographing people depends on the photographer's ability to understand his fellow man.”
-- Edward Weston -
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“The prejudice many photographers have against colour photography comes from not thinking of colour as form. You can say things with colour that can't be said in black and white... Those who say that colour will eventually replace black and white are talking nonsense. The two do not compete with each other. They are different means to different ends.”
-- Edward Weston -
“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 WestonSource : Sarah M. Lowe, Tina Modotti, Edward Weston, Barbican Art Gallery (2004). “Tina Modotti & Edward Weston: the Mexico years”, Merrell Publishers
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“I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect.”
-- Edward Weston -
“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 -
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“This then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”
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“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.”
-- Edward Weston -
“The camera sees more than the eye, so why not make use of it?”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston, Nancy Newhall (1990). “The daybooks of Edward Weston”
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“To compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers
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“I see no reason for recording the obvious.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston (1973). “The Daybooks of Edward Weston: California”
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“Since the recording process is instantaneous, and the nature of the image such that it cannot survive corrective handwork, it is obvious that the finished print must be created in full before the film is exposed.”
-- Edward Weston -
“My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, or the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.”
-- Edward Weston -
“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 -
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“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 -
“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 -
“My true program is summed up in one word: life. I expect to photograph anything suggested by that word which appeals to me.”
-- Edward Weston -
“Very often people looking at my pictures say, 'You must have had to wait a long time to get that cloud just right (or that shadow, or the light).' As a matter of fact, I almost never wait, that is, unless I can see that the thing will be right in a few minutes. But if I must wait an hour for the shadow to move, or the light to change, or the cow to graze in the other direction, then I put up my camera and go on, knowing that I am likely to find three subjects just as good in the same hour.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers
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“There is nothing like a Bach fugue to remove me from a discordant moment... only Bach hold up fresh and strong after repeated playing. I can always return to Bach when the other records weary me.”
-- Edward Weston -
“"Only with effort can the camera be forced to lie: basically it is an honest medium: so the photographer is much more likely to approach nature in a spirit of inquiry, of communion, instead of with the saucy swagger of self-dubbed "artists"."”
-- Edward Weston -
“The... arguments against photography ever being considered a fine art are: the element of chance which enters in, finding things ready-made for a machine to record, and of course the mechanics of the medium. ...I say that chance enters into all branches of art: a chance word or phrase starts a new trend of thought in a writer, a chance sound may bring a new melody to a musician, a chance combination of lines, new composition to a painter. ...Chance - which in reality is not chance - but being ready, attuned to one's surroundings - and grasp my opportunity....”
-- Edward Weston -
“The great scientist dares to differ from accepted 'facts' - think irrationally - let the artist do likewise.”
-- Edward Weston -
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“Dare to be irrational! - keep free from formulas, open to any fresh impulse, fluid.”
-- Edward WestonSource : Edward Weston (1988). “Edward Weston”
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“If I am interested, amazed, stimulated to work, that is sufficient reason to thank the gods, and go ahead!”
-- Edward Weston
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