"Tide Pool"

(later: Portfolio Print No.10)

gelatin silver print, mounted on cardbord

signed and dated (pencil)

Beginning in the 1950s, Brett Weston's style changed dramatically and was characterized by high-contrast, abstract paintings. The subjects he chose were largely similar to those that interested him early in his career: plant leaves, knotted roots, and tangled seaweed. He mostly focused on close-ups and abstracted details.
In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, Weston spent much of his time in Hawaii, where he owned two homes. He traveled back and forth between the two homes, taking photographs along the way. "In that environment I found everything I wanted to interpret photographically about the world."
(Brett Weston Archive)

In Tide Pool, Brett Weston uses light and shadow to highlight the structures of a tide pool in a striking way. Shiny areas alternate with deep black tones, creating a strong graphic effect. The natural surface is abstracted by the play of contrasts and appears almost like a drawing. Weston focuses on the formal quality of the motif: light reflects on wet surfaces, shadows emphasize lines and movements. The result is an image that is less documentary than structural – a quiet exploration of form, surface, and light.
The photograph is part of the portfolio Abstraction 2, which Weston published in 1980. It contains a selection of early and later works in which he consistently devotes himself to abstraction. Instead of depicting landscapes or objects in the classical sense, Weston primarily explores visual rhythms, textures, and light-dark relationships.
(Christoph Fuchs, translated with DeepL)