Surf on Black Beach
Artist
Edward Weston
(American, 1886-1958)
Date1938
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 7 x 9 1/2 in. (17.8 x 24.2 cm)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineMuseum purchase, 1969
Object numberSN8456
Edward Weston was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, and had already exhibited his work at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1903 at the age of 17. In 1906 he relocated to California, and he remained on the West Coast for the rest of his life. Weston visited the New York studio of Alfred Stieglitz in 1923, which prompted him to reject the concept of manipulating images into art pieces or "pictorial photography." Stieglitz was a leading American exponent of this aesthetic philosophy. Weston embraced the concept of naturalistic photography instead, which espoused the beauty of unadorned, truthful images. In this aerial view, the reflection of light on the wet beach gives the sand an almost metallic black finish. The modulating waves and marks in the sand create a punctured pattern in the black surface, while the light transforms the water into a silvery surface, endowing the whole image with a rich sensuousness
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