Digital BW, The Print

Darin Boville wrote:

>Wasn't this primarily the result of Adams helping out by getting  
>Polaroid to make Weston a consultant--like Adams...to help Weston out  
>because he needed the money...Not because Weston had some great urge  
>to work in color?
>
>--Darin
>
>www.darinboville.com
>
>  
>
Beats me why he shot color. The few examples I have seen were right up
there with his B&W given the technology of color transparencies in the
40's. Could just have been curiosity, I suppose. Money was, apparently,
never the driving force in Weston's life. He dumped a very lucrative
portraiture business early in his career to pursue his own daimon.
Again, according to Cole Weston, Edward never made more than 5k in a year.

"But E.W. was never a businessman. Although the opportunity to exploit
his work was offered to him many times, he never accepted it. His
largest yearly gross income was $5000. His philosophy as far as business
was concerned, and I quote: "Be your own boss and never become a slave
to your overhead," and he practiced it."

Nancy Newhall in her essay "Color as Form"  suggested that he just "came
to color" and "following the Kodak instructions and himself made only
one mistake in timing in his first two dozen 8 x 10's. When Kodak
published a portfolio of his color, the data on stops and speeds caused
a flood of bewildered letters." I would surmise that being Edward Weston
he only had to express an interest in Kodak's latest and greatest and it
would be his for the asking.


Roger

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Roger L Sopher
rlsopher@...
http://deCorrales.com
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