Brett Weston
| Brett Weston | |
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Brett Weston by Wife Dody Weston Thompson 1949
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| Born | Brett Weston December 16, 1911 Los Angeles, California |
| Died | January 22, 1993 Hawaii |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Learned from Edward Weston and other well known photographers of the time. |
| Known for | Photography |
| Movement | The West Coast Photographic Movement |
| Patron(s) | Edward Weston Polaroid Corporation's Artist Support Program |
Brett Weston (originally Theodore Brett Weston; December 16, 1911, Los Angeles–January 22, 1993, Hawaii) was an American photographer.[1] Van Deren Coke described Brett Weston as the "child genius of American photography." He was the second of the four sons of photographer Edward Weston and Flora Chandler.
Weston began taking photographs in 1925, while living in Mexico with Tina Modotti and his father. He began showing his photographs with Edward Weston in 1927, was featured at the international exhibition at Film und Foto in Germany at age 17, and mounted his first one-man museum retrospective at age 21 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in January, 1932.
Weston's earliest images from the 1920s reflect his intuitive sophisticated sense of abstraction. He often flattened the plane, engaging in layered space, an artistic style more commonly seen among the Abstract Expressionists and more modern painters like David Hockney than other photographers. He began photographing the dunes at Oceano, California, in the early 1930s. This eventually became a favorite location of his father Edward and later shared with Brett's third wife Dody Weston Thompson. Brett preferred the high gloss papers and ensuing sharp clarity of the gelatin silver photographic materials of the f64 Group rather than the platinum matte photographic papers common in the 1920s and encouraged Edward Weston to explore the new silver papers in his own work. Brett Weston was credited by photography historian Beaumont Newhall as the first photographer to make negative space the subject of a photograph. Donald Ross, a photographer close to both Westons, said that Brett never came after anyone. He was a true photographic equal and colleague to his father and "one should not be considered without the other."
"Brett and I are always seeing the same kinds of things to do - we have the same kind of vision. Brett didn't like this; naturally enough, he felt that even when he had done the thing first, the public would not know and he would be blamed for imitating me." Edward Weston - Daybooks - May 24, 1930.
Brett Weston used to refer to Edward Weston lovingly as "my biggest fan" and there was no rivalry between the two photographic giants. Brett and his wife Dody loyally set aside their own photography to help Edward after he was unable to print his own images due to Parkinson's disease, which claimed Edward's life in 1958.
Brett Weston married and divorced four times. He had one daughter, Erica Weston. Brett Weston lived part-time on the Big Island of Hawaii and in Carmel, California for the final 14 years of his life. He maintained a home in Waikoloa that was built by his brother Neil Weston, and later moved to Hawaii Paradise Park. He died in Kona Hospital on January 22, 1993 after suffering a stroke.
Brett Weston was ranked one of the top ten photographers collected by American museums by the final decade of his life. His photographs are included in the collections of countless museums, including the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Brett Weston's last will directed that his remaining archive be ultimately housed at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ where he expected it to join the archives of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. However in November 1996, Oklahoma City collector Christian Keesee acquired from the Brett Weston Estate the remaining body of Weston’s work after Weston's daughter Erica ordered the collection to be liquidated.
Publications
- "Brett Weston At One Hundred - A Centennial Tribute", ed. Merrilly Alley, Photography West Graphics, CA (photographywestgraphics.com) 2011 Slipcased edition of 100 ISBN 978-0-615-53977-5
- “A Restless Eye: A Biography of Photographer Brett Weston” Erica Weston Editions, [1] MO 2011, ISBN 978-0-615-41361-7
- "Brett Weston: Out of the Shadow", ed. Stephen Bennett Phillips, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, OK, 2008, ISBN 978-0-911919-09-7
- "Fifteen Photographs, Brett Weston" (Afterword by Roger Aikin), Lodima Press, PA 2007, ASIN: B0012FZNJA
- "New York, Brett Weston" (Introduction by Beaumont Newhall, Afterword by Roger Aikin), Lodima Press, PA 2006, ASIN: B000T4CSUM
- "White Sands, Brett Weston" (Introduction by Nancy Newhall, Afterword by Roger Aikin), Lodima Press, PA 2005, ISBN 1-888899-31-X
- "San Francisco, Brett Weston" (Afterword by Roger Aikin), Lodima Press, PA 2004, ISBN 978-1-888899-16-0
- "Dune: Edward and Brett Weston", ed. Kurt Markus, Wild Horse Island Press, MT, 2003, ISBN 0-9677321-2-3
- "Hawaii: Fifty Photographs, Brett Weston", Photography West Graphics, CA, 1992, ISBN 0-9616515-4-7
- "Brett Weston: Master Photographer, Brett Weston", Photography West Graphics, CA, 1989, ISBN 0-9616515-3-9
- "Brett Weston: A Personal Selection, Brett Weston", Photography West Graphics, CA, 1986 ISBN 0-9616515-0-4
- "Brett Weston: Photographs from Five Decades", ed. RH Cravens, Aperture, NY, 1980, ISBN 978-0-89381-065-8
- "Brett Weston: Voyage of the Eye, Brett Weston", Aperture, NY, 1975, ISBN 978-0-912334-84-4
- "Brett Weston: Photographs", Merle Armitage, E. Weyhe, NY, 1956, ASIN: B0007DEJP2
References
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