From our deep dive into the photography collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Edward Weston (1886–1958) is one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, celebrated for his carefully composed, sharply focused landscapes, nudes, and portraits, as well as his highly original close-up studies of seashells.

Stephen G. Stein has given the National Gallery of Art four exceptional photographs by Weston and over the years, Stein has given a group of 161 photographs including some by the most admired artists in the history of photography. It was in 1990 that the National Gallery launched an initiative to acquire the finest examples of the art of photography and to mount photography exhibitions of the highest quality, accompanied by scholarly publications and programs. Today the Gallery’s collection has grown to over 20,000 works encompassing the history of the medium from its beginnings in 1839 to the present.

Weston created Shells after his return to America from two visits to Mexico between 1923 and 1927. 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.)

Nautilus (1927), one of Weston’s most iconic works, is acclaimed for its dazzling luminosity and demonstrates his ability to transform a common object into a subject at once unrecognizable and strangely familiar. Cypress, Rock, Stone Crop (1930) and Dunes at Oceano (1936) are outstanding examples of the artist’s skill at distilling the complexity of nature into stunning visual spectacles that are both detailed and abstract. An example of his late work, White Sands, New Mexico (1941), reveals the interaction between the timeless elegance of the land and the rapidly changing clouds above. National Gallery of Art

Cover Visual Edward Weston
Nautilus, 1927, printed 1940s
gelatin silver print
Image/sheet: 23.9 x 19 cm (9 7/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
mount: 40.5 x 34.5 cm (15 15/16 x 13 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Stephen G. Stein

Leila Antakly