A major retrospective of the work of American photographer Edward Weston opened this week at Camera, a center for photography in Turin, Italy, showcasing over 170 photographs, many original prints. The exhibition, titled “Edward Weston. The Matter of Forms,” curated by Sérgio Mah and organized in collaboration with the Fundación Mapfre, marks the first time the collection has been displayed in Italy, following showings in Madrid, and Barcelona.
Weston (1886-1958), hailed as one of the most innovative and influential American photographers of the 20th century, navigated a pivotal shift in the medium, moving from the pictorialist style—popular in his early career—towards a more objective approach. This transition was formalized in 1932 with his signing of the f/64 manifesto, alongside photographers like Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham. The group advocated for sharp focus and embraced the inherent qualities of photography, rejecting the emulation of painting.
The exhibition traces Weston’s artistic evolution, including his period in Mexico City during the 1920s, where he developed a close relationship with photographer Tina Modotti. Images from this time, featured in the show, depict Modotti reciting poetry, capturing a blend of candid action and carefully constructed form. Another photograph, “Iris White” (1921), exemplifies Weston’s early pictorialist tendencies, characterized by soft focus and platinum tones.
Weston’s work likewise reflects the influence of poet Walt Whitman, whom he was commissioned to photograph for a new edition of “Leaves of Grass.” This commission aligned with Weston’s own artistic philosophy, mirroring Whitman’s embrace of all aspects of human experience and the natural world. Weston translated this into a fascination with the forms of everyday objects, finding beauty and significance in the simplest subjects, such as peppers and seashells.
A key element of Weston’s artistic approach was his emphasis on form and texture, achieved through meticulous attention to light and tone. He sought to reveal the inherent beauty of his subjects, often isolating them against stark backgrounds. This technique is evident in his photographs of sanitary fixtures in Mexico City in 1925, which, according to analysis of his work, invite viewers to see abstract shapes and forms reminiscent of natural objects.
In 1937, Weston became the first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, enabling him to produce nearly 1,400 negatives over two years using an 8×10 view camera. Many of his most celebrated photographs were taken at Point Lobos, California, where he lived for many years, documenting the trees and rocks of the landscape. He continued to work and live in the United States, eventually settling in a small house in Carmel Highlands, California, where he died in 1958.
Susan Sontag, in her 1977 book “On Photography,” dedicated significant attention to Weston’s work, describing his approach as “the heroism of vision.” Sontag argued that Weston’s photography created a distance between the viewer and the subject, emphasizing the surface and isolating it from its context. This detachment, she suggested, was not a limitation but a defining characteristic of the medium, allowing for a new way of seeing the world.
The exhibition at Camera highlights this tension between observation and interpretation, inviting viewers to consider the transformative power of the photographic gaze. It presents Weston’s work not as a collection of iconic images, but as a cohesive body of work that explores the fundamental relationship between perception, form, and the ever-changing nature of reality.