WESTON, Brett

About the US photographer, Brett WESTON (1911-1993)

"The fourteen year-old Brett WESTON began his legendary abstraction of form in Mexico under the astonished eye of his father, the great photographer Edward WESTON. By the amazing age of seventeen, the work by Brett WESTON was being exhibited internationally and he had his first one-man museum show at the de Young in San Francisco. His work would ultimately became one of the defining poles of contemporary photography with its technical precision, bold design and extremes of abstraction and private imagination. A world away from the endless California horizons and soaring cliffs, his European landscapes from abroad feature beautifully modulated light and confined landscapes born from his expert technical command of the West Coast tradition of photography. In his concluding photographs taken during the 1980’s, the abstract was resurrected but this time the playful and less orderly images of writhing reflections in skyscraper windows and the electrifying patterns of light on underwater figures captured his imagination. A final series of plant forms in Hawaii revealed a more mature language; as a sense of mortality and introspection entered the frame." (slightly adapted text, © Photography West Gallery)

Photo books by and on the work of Brett WESTON (a selection)

'Voyage of the Eye' (1976); 'Brett Weston' (1980); 'Photographien aus fünf Jahrzehnten' (1981); 'A Personal selection' (1986); 'Master Photographer' (1989); 'Hawaii' (1992); 'In Pursuit of Form: Sculpture and Photographs' (2002); 'Dune' (2003, 2010, together with works by Edward WESTON); 'San Francisco' (2005); 'White Sands' (2005); 'New York: Twelve Photographs' (2006); 'Fifteen Photographs' (2007); 'Baja California' (2008); 'Out of the Shadow' (2008); 'Ten Photographs' (2008); 'Portraits of My Father' (2011); 'Oregon' (2011); 'A Restless Eye: A Biography of Photographer Brett Weston' (2011); 'Weston: Edward, Brett, Cole, Cara. A Dynasty of Photographers' (upcoming in August 2022)