"Rock, Point Lobos"

PL-R-21G

gelatin silver print mounted on cardboard

signed (Cole Weston), titled and dated (pencil) on verso

Edward Weston's photographs of Point Lobos mark a central highlight of his work and, at the same time, a key position in the development of modern American photography in the 20th century. Between the early 1930s and late 1940s, Weston devoted himself with great dedication to this rugged coastal landscape near Carmel, California. Point Lobos became not only a place of aesthetic inspiration for him, but also a meditative retreat – a natural space that is abstracted into a universal formal language in his images.
The works are paradigmatic of the aesthetics of so-called "straight photography," a movement that Weston co-founded – together with artists such as Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and others from the f/64 group. Their maxim: "pure" photography, unaltered by soft focus or other painterly effects of pictorialism. The visual language should focus on clarity, attention to detail, and objective rigor – although Weston's objectivity is transformed into a deeply subjective vision.
Edward Weston's photographs of Point Lobos are more than mere nature shots. They are the result of a photographic mindset that seeks not only to depict the world, but also to reveal its inner order. With their clarity, formal reduction, and meditative concentration, they are still regarded today as milestones of modern photographic art and as silent hymns to the abstract beauty of nature.
(Christoph Fuchs)