For 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 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 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 WESTONThere 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 WESTONNo photographer is better than the simplest of cameras
EDWARD WESTONI want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect.
EDWARD WESTONIf I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.
EDWARD WESTONThis then: to photograph a rock, have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.
EDWARD WESTONI always work better when I do not reason, when no question of right or wrong enter in,-when my pulse quickens to the form before me without hesitation nor calculation.
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 WESTONGood composition is merely the strongest way of seeing.
EDWARD WESTONArt is based on order. The world is full of ‘sloppy Bohemians’ and their work betrays them.
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 WESTONA photograph has no value unless it looks exactly like a photograph and nothing else.
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 WESTON