The first Doylestown Photography Club meeting of 2010 was a huge success, with photographers new and experienced filling the seats to standing room only capacity. We were honored to have Stephen Perloff join the club to help interpret the exhibit of works on display at the Michener Art Museum of Edward Weston. More on this compelling speaker in just a moment!
First up were housekeeping items regarding upcoming events. The club is looking forward to a series of excellent meetings this spring, including in February, Joe Rossbach, renowned nature photographer. Joe has a article on HDR in this months Outdoor Photographer. Two days later, Saturday Feb. 6th, ThePhotographyPlace.com will orchestrate an all day, outdoor workshop in and around Bucks County. Later, in Spring, Joe will be returning to “The Place” for another opportunity to learn. Look for the details online. In March, we can look forward to our meeting centered around portrait photography with a focus on lighting and style. Additionally, headshots of our members will be taken at the meeting in an effort to begin building a members database. Get your hair done! In April, Christopher John will be orchestrating an event to help show our work at a Advanced Medical Healing Arts Center. This will be a juried event, so start shooting!
To kick off the New Year, the club focused on the life and work of master photographer, Edward Weston. Several club members presented different aspects of his life and work.
Julian Eubanks was kind enough to bring his large format photography equipment to show the club a fascinating look at the gear Weston would have used to create his images. The sheer size of the equipment, the number of steps needed, the use of abundant chemicals and the slower pace of composing gave the masters of their day some distinct advantages, but times have certainly changed, enabling more people to create their own magic. Thank you, Julian for showing us hands-on the techniques used by Weston.
Edward Weston with his 8x10 camera.
Drew Wagner, Photographer of the Month guru, spoke about Weston’s early work. It was fascinating to learn how Weston had gone door to door to sell his services early on in his career. Later, as one of the first masters of the 20th century, Weston was the primary proponent of straight photography. It’s amazing to think Weston destroyed much of his early work from sheer disgust at having engaged in retouching and recreating reality. Moving forward, Weston used sharpness, geometrics, shadows, angles and unique composition to render life; to see the essence of the thing itself. Thank you, Drew, for the fascinating look at Weston.
Mike Monti then gave us a unique perspective on the darkroom of Weston. It’s amazing to understand the processes that were undertaken by photographers to pull the most of the image using chemicals, negatives, silver paper and a light bulb. As much as the quality improves from creating a print directly from the negative, having blackened fingernails from all the chemicals is something modern photographers are happy to avoid. Thank you, Mike, this was a very helpful view into the early darkroom techniques.
Weston's "Pepper #30"
Chris Rawlins provided a historical view of the influencers on Edward Weston’s life and work. It was compelling to see the work of Henrietta Shore who represented women artists in America in the early twenties. It was interesting to see her impressionistic art, as well as other work of the time, which so clearly impacted Weston’s artistic eye. Thanks to Chris for the historic tour of Weston’s influences.
Charley Callaghan then set the stage for our premier speaker of the evening, sharing several insightful quotes by Edward Weston. One memorable thought was, “Photography to the amateur is recreation, to the professional it is work, and hard work too, no matter how pleasurable it may be.”
Next up was our honored guest speaker of the night! Stephen Perloff is a respected writer, educator and photographer. Stephen has taught photography and the history of photography at numerous Philadelphia-area colleges and Universities, and his articles have been reproduced in dozens of journals. Stephen is the founder of The Photo Review, a critical journal of national scope and international readership. The Photo Review quarterly journal has earned a reputation as one of the best serious photography publications being produced today.
Stephen took the group through a fascinating slideshow of Weston’s work as well as the work of other early photographers. Stephen’s knowledge was invaluable as he gave us new perspective on Weston’s work. It was interesting to hear about the struggle Weston experienced to be recognized, and to learn of his fight against indifference to the medium of photography. Weston helped answer the question, “Is photography art?” with resounding success.
From Weston’s early work with soft focus, to his move into straight photography, the show was fascinating. Stephen displayed for us a rich set of examples of different focus looks, with detail, contrast, highlights and the modern style that exemplified Weston’s work. Stephen helped us see with better clarity, Weston’s approach of making a parallel between the human body and other natural forms. Yes, perhaps Weston was a bit of a “cad”, but never before could “a bunch of trays, a light bulb and a vision” mean so much to photography.
A sincere thank you goes to Stephen Perloff, for his rich analysis and portrayal of Weston’s life and work. The DPC truly enjoyed having him with us, and we were both fortunate and honored that he shared his wealth of knowledge! To learn more about the Steven, please click here and we encourage you all to subscribe his excellent publication here.