My Influences - Edward Weston

Pepper No. 30, 1930/Edward Weston

I thought it would be fun to share some artists who have influenced me and my work. There are quite a few artists that have influenced me over the years but I am going to start off with my all-time favorite photographer, Edward Weston.

I was first introduced to the work of Edward Weston in my undergraduate History of Photography class. His work has inspired me from the first time I saw it. There is an amazing book called “Art and Fear” and in there, there was a description of their reactions to the first time they viewed Weston’s nudes. They said that there was the work in front of them and there was everything else; nothing else compared to Weston’s work, and that is the same way I felt when I saw it.

Weston had a great eye for the flow of the line whether it was in his peppers, shells, or in what he was most famous for his nudes. His photographs have given me a great interest in finding the beauty of the form within common objects. In the image above, Pepper No. 30, 1930, I feel drawn to the long lines that twist and flow into each other. It is almost as if two people are drawing each other into an embrace. This photograph offers up an invitation to stop and take in the beauty that we are too busy to stop and see.

This practice of looking at an object that is around your house was a big inspiration to me. I loved the idea of taking an object and looking at it in a totally new way. This allows us to draw out the beauty that so often we overlook.

I will leave with you one of my favorite quotes.

“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.”

-Edward Weston