Brett Weston

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.

Brett Weston
Brett Weston by Third Wife Dody Weston Thompson 1949
Born
Brett Weston

(1911-12-16)December 16, 1911
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedJanuary 22, 1993(1993-01-22) (aged 81)
Hawaii, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationAssisted Edward Weston (father)
Known forPhotography
Notable work
Mendenhall Glacier, Dune Oceano, Tin Roofs, Canal Netherlands, Underwater Nude
Movementf64
Patron(s)Edward Weston
Polaroid Corporation's
Artist Support Program

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.

"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 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.

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, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Museum of Photographic Arts. In November 1996, Oklahoma City collector Christian Keesee acquired from the Brett Weston Estate the remaining body of Weston’s work.

Publications
  • Brett Weston: Photographs. Merle Armitage, E. Weyhe, NY, 1956. ASIN: B0007DEJP2.
  • Voyage of the Eye. Aperture, NY, 1975. ISBN 978-0-912334-84-4.
  • Brett Weston: Photographs from Five Decades. Edited by RH Cravens, Aperture, NY, 1980. ISBN 978-0-89381-065-8.
  • Brett Weston: A Personal Selection. Photography West Graphics, CA, 1986. ISBN 0-9616515-0-4.
  • Brett Weston: Master Photographer. Photography West Graphics, CA, 1989. ISBN 0-9616515-3-9.
  • Hawaii: Fifty Photographs. Photography West Graphics, CA, 1992. ISBN 0-9616515-4-7.
  • Dune: Edward and Brett Weston. Edited by Kurt Markus. Wild Horse Island Press, MT, 2003. ISBN 0-9677321-2-3.
  • San Francisco. Lodima Press, PA 2004. ISBN 978-1-888899-16-0. With an afterword by Roger Aikin.
  • White Sands. Lodima Press, PA 2005. ISBN 1-888899-31-X. With an introduction by Nancy Newhall and an afterword by Roger Aikin.
  • New York. Lodima Press, PA 2006. ASIN: B000T4CSUM. With an introduction by Beaumont Newhall and an afterword by Roger Aikin.
  • Fifteen Photographs. Lodima Press, PA 2007. ASIN: B0012FZNJA. With an afterword by Roger Aikin.
  • Brett Weston: Out of the Shadow. Edited by Stephen Bennett Phillips. Oklahoma City Museum of Art, OK, 2008, ISBN 978-0-911919-09-7.
  • A Restless Eye: A Biography of Photographer Brett Weston. Erica Weston Editions, MO, 2011. ISBN 978-0-615-41361-7.
  • Brett Weston At One Hundred - A Centennial Tribute. Edited by Merrilly Alley. Photography West Graphics, CA, 2011. ISBN 978-0-615-53977-5. Slipcased edition of 100 copies.

References
  1. "The masterful and messy legacy of Brett Weston". Montereycountyweekly.com. Archived from the original on 2013-02-16. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
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