THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EYE

But what is "enough"? While the
ultimate answer to that question is up
to you (and to those who critique
your photos), here are a few hints.
A good first objective for any
photo is to generate visual interest.
Obviously, a photograph must provoke
interest to hold a viewer's attention.
Before you can make the rest of
us understand your intentions, you
must make us want to understand
them.
There are many ways of achieving
visual interest. First is composition.
A skillful composition can generate
interest all by itself. Light is another
important factor. Others include
depth of field, shutter speed effects
and printing technique.
A second objective is mood.
Though it is often hard to define, virtually
every effective photograph has
a mood of some kind. It needn't be
a familiar one like "happy" or "sad."
If a photograph emphasizes shape
and texture, the mood may be "sensuous."
If it suggests a scientific
examination, the mood may be "clinical"
or "detached." If it's not clear
what the photographer is intending,
the mood may be "confused" or
"playful." A photograph that is apparently
concerned only with line, or
light and shadow, may have a mood
that is simply "aesthetic."
A third objective is expression.
This one is optional, though recommended.
A photograph is expressive
when it "says" something. You can
use almost any subject to express
your own feelings about the world.
Or you can try to stand back and let
each subject (whether it be a bicycle
or a person) speak for itself. You can
even do both: combining your own
moods and perceptions with the inherent
qualities of your subject.
Decide for yourself.
152 The Photographic Eye
FOCAL POINT: Edward Weston
By the 1920s, photography had become
an accepted part of American
culture. Photographers were busily
producing images of people, places
and events that they or their clients
considered significant. Presidents,
boulevards, buildings, newlywed
couples, battles and factory workers
were all being faithfully recorded and
preserved for posterity. Edward
Weston helped promote a whole new
way of seeing. He photographed both
soaring mountains and a handful of
pebbles, the "great themes" and
relative trivia. He was interested in
pure aesthetics, in anything that had
compelling line, texture, shape or
lighting.
Other photographers, as far back
as Daguerre and Talbot, had photographed
small objects or details of
large ones. However, Weston was
among the first to consistently elevate
the ordinary into fine art. He photographed
weathered doorways, eggs,
fruit, rocks, eyeglasses and cabbages,
striving to capture the essence of
each. Weston's subjects became important
because they had been photographed.
Absolutely anything was
appropriate, if it could be compellingly
presented.
Curiously, Weston began his
career heavily influenced by the Pictorialists,
one of the most conservative
of the various "schools" of
photography. The Pictorialists believed
that photography should imitate
painting, and they strove to
reproduce painterly effects with their
cameras. Weston's early photographs,
true to Pictorialist style, tended
to use soft-focus and dreamy
lighting.
After encountering the work of
Steiglitz, Paul Strand and other
Realists, Weston changed his mind
and his style. He began using large
format cameras to produce "straight"
photographs of exceptional precision
and clarity. Along with Ansel
Adams, he was a founding member
of "Group f.64," an association of
photographers who all believed in using
small apertures to achieve extreme
depth of field.
Weston was born in 1886 in Highland
Park, Illinois, but spent most of
his life in California and other
western states. He opened his own
photographic studio at the age of 18,
specializing in portraits. Nearly 20
years later, in 1923, he suspended his
commercial work and spent three
years in Mexico. Upon his return to
the U.S., Weston began concentrating
on the nature studies for
which he became famous. From
the mid-1930s until his death in
1958, Weston was widely regarded
as one of America's foremost
photographers.