Brett Weston

Weston made his first negatives in 1925, with an emergent eye for abstraction. After exhibiting at Film und Foto in 1929 (while still a teenager) and the Group f64 show in 1932, numerous other exhibits and awards followed, including a Guggenheim fellowship (1947) and National Endowment for the Arts grant (1973), forging an photographic legacy comparable to family and friends like Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Paul Strand.

Weston’s vision of pronounced lines and hard angles unveiled strong forms and depth of field characteristic of straight photography. Light and shadow transfigure mundane elements of both the natural and manmade worlds into ethereal paradigms. A master printer, Weston fully explored the depths of tone, evolving from warm, crisp prints to cool, heavily contrasted ones. Early negatives were later reprinted resulting in dynamic imagery, canvassing a diverse, but subtle spectrum of materials and techniques.