Edward Weston
2S Shell
1927

Name: 2S Shell
Brand: Edward Weston
Price: 10000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Weston created 2S after his return to America from two extended stays in Mexico between 1923 and 1927. Throughout 1927 he took twenty-six still life images of shells, including Nautilus 1927 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). His interest in nautilus shells was prompted by a 1927 meeting with the Californian painter Henrietta Shore, for whom Weston was a sitter at the time and who often featured shells in her paintings. Weston wrote in his diary of seeing these shells in her studio, stating that that he ‘never saw a Chambered Nautilus before. If I had, my response would have been immediate!’ (Weston 1966, p.21). Several months later he wrote of how his subsequent exploration of these forms had begun to consume his practice: I worked all Sunday with the shells – literally all day. Only three negatives made and two of them were done as records of movement to repeat again when I can find suitable backgrounds. I wore myself out trying every conceivable texture and tone for grounds: glass, tin, cardboard – wool, velvet, even my rubber coat! (Weston 1966, p.21.) His shells are an example of the ‘pure’ or ‘straight’ style that characterized Weston’s still life photographs. These terms first emerged in the 1880s to refer to a photographic approach that prioritized high contrast, sharp focus and an emphasis on the formal qualities of the subject, as opposed to the pictorialist tradition, in which subjects were photographically manipulated through soft focus, cropping and composite image techniques. - Tate Modern

Creator:

Edward Weston (1886-1958, American)

Creation Year:

1927

Dimensions:

Height: 9.25 in (23.5 cm)Width: 7.25 in (18.42 cm)

Medium:

Silver Gelatin

Period:

1920-1929

Condition:

Printed later by Cole Weston from original neg. 1/2" scratch lower left. Acquired through Camera Obscura Denver in the 1980s.