Results alone should be appraised; the way in which these are achieved is of importance only to the maker.
EDWARD WESTONResults alone should be appraised; the way in which these are achieved is of importance only to the maker.
EDWARD WESTONI want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect.
EDWARD WESTONThe 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 WESTONIf I am interested, amazed, stimulated to work, that is sufficient reason to thank the gods, and go ahead!
EDWARD WESTONTo compose a subject well means no more than to see and present it in the strongest manner possible.
EDWARD WESTONA lifetime can well be spent correcting and improving one’s own faults without bothering about others.
EDWARD WESTONIf I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.
EDWARD WESTONMy true program is summed up in one word: life. I expect to photograph anything suggested by that word which appeals to me.
EDWARD WESTONFor the obvious reason that nature – unadulterated and unimproved by man – is simply chaos. In fact, the camera proves that nature is crude and lacking in arrangement.
EDWARD WESTONIs love like art – something always ahead, never quite attained.
EDWARD WESTONDare to be irrational! – keep free from formulas, open to any fresh impulse, fluid.
EDWARD WESTONThe 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 WESTONWhen 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 WESTONMy 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 WESTONWhy limit yourself to what your eyes see when you have an opportunity to extend your vision?
EDWARD WESTONI was extravagant in the matter of cameras – anything photographic – I had to have the best. But that was to further my work. In most things I have gone along with the plainest – or without.
EDWARD WESTON