Intimate Matter
Edward Weston's Work at The Photography Show
The Photography Show, presented by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) runs April 4–7 at Pier 94 in New York, with an opening preview on April 3. This year’s show features dozens of fine art photography galleries from around the globe, each presenting a variety of traditional, digital, and new media works from the 19th century through today. Many of PROVOKR’s favorite legends of photography will be there, but there’s one whose work we are exceptionally excited to see: Edward Weston.
Weston created the bulk of his work in the 1910s through the 1930s, but the man’s work spoke to trends that wouldn’t emerge until a decade after his death in 1958. The intimacy of his work with natural objects, including seashells, cabbage leaves, and, most famously, bell peppers, give life and sensuality to inanimate matter in unexpected ways. It’s as though he’s inviting you to press your mouth around a shell, for example, and bite it like a lover’s lower lip. The smooth ripples of a leaf are pretty damn close to third base.
We could go on.
His documented objects complement the tender nudes he captured on the deserted sands of California’s coastline. Weston’s eye for sexy curves, both literal and implied, stand apart from his contemporaries, and we’re looking forward to scavenging many examples of his work in New York next week.
You’re invited to come with us.
