Brett Weston
American, 1911 - 1993#7 Elm Forest, Holland, 1971
Not on view
Gelatin Silver Print
Dimensions10 5/8 × 12 5/16 in.
Gift of Gwen Tarbox, 1978.52
At the age of thirteen, Brett Weston left his home in southern California to become his father Edward Weston’s photography apprentice in Mexico. In his father’s studio, he was surrounded by some of the most revolutionary artists of the time and learned a great deal about modern art. The pair returned to the United States after a year, and Brett continued to assist his father and began taking his own photographs. Before he turned twenty Brett was included in an important avant-garde photography exhibition. Although it was difficult to step out from his father’s shadow, Weston ran a successful photography studio and gained international recognition. He traveled throughout the world to capture the people and places that interested him and was particularly fond of the aesthetic variations offered by landscape. For Brett the contrast and texture created by natural elements could be abstracted in a way that resembled the artwork of the modernists he spent time with in Mexico.
