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Chapter 12: Seeing Photographically by Edward Weston
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Chapter 12: Seeing Photographically By Edward Weston
Nature of the image
The distinguishing qualities
of a photograph
Chapter 12
"First there is the amazing precision of definition, especially in the recording of fine detail; and second, there is the unbroken sequence of infinitely subtle gradations from black to white (106).”
“Each medium of expression imposes its own limitations on the artist – limitations inherent in the tools, materials, or processes he employs. In the older art forms these natural confines are so well established they are taken for granted. We select music of dancing, sculpture or writing because we feel that within the frame of that particular medium we can best express whatever it is we have to say (104).”
Nature of the recording process
An image cannot sustain handwork and the tension created is thus destroyed by the intrusion of handwork
Seeing Photographically By Edward Weston
“Among all the arts photography is unique by reason of its instantaneous recording process. The sculptor, the architect, the composer all have the possibility of making changes in, or additions to, their original plans while their work is in the process of execution (105).”
The photo-painting standard
“But in spite of such evidence that can now be appraised with a clam, historical eye, the approach to creative work in photography today is frequently just muddled as it was eighty years ago, and the painters’ tradition still persists […] (105).”
-Youngest of the graphic arts
-Early photographers had no tradition so they looked to the painters
-Photography had laid the groundwork for a true creative field however due to the traditions and influences of the painters such recognition was delayed
Presentation by Jordan Watters
What's your opinion?
1. Have you ever thought about this?
2. Do you believe this to be true?
What do you think?
Straight Photography
1. Do you believe this to be true?
2. Whether yes or no how so?
Recording the image
-The author mentions how people believed it was not art because it was the product of a machine.
1. The camera is a machine does that mean they are not real and true photographs?
2. Are photographers not artists because of this?
A photographer’s most important task 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 photography he wants to make (106).”
Works Cited
Weston, Edward. "Seeing Photographically." The Photography Reader. By Liz Wells. London: Routledge, 2003. 104-08. Print.
-Photo painters believe photography has no means of control
-The opposite is true there is actually too much that must be controlled
-Technology in many ways is making photography more difficult and less easy to master