The Top 4, The Final 4!  That’s right baby, we are down to the final four of my My Favorite Top 10 Black and White Analog Photographers!!

Landscapes and seascapes, nudes, portraits, peppers and other vegetables, sea shells, everyday objects, and yes, even toilet bowls – Excusado, 1925 – and more! A founder, of the famous Group f/64 along with Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke and Brett Weston. Author of the seminal Day Books. Here Weston wrote about Excusado … “For long I have considered photographing this useful and elegant accessory to modern hygienic life, but not until I actually contemplated its image on my ground glass did I realize the possibilities before me. . . . Here was every sensuous curve of the “human form divine” but minus imperfections.”

A true master and a genius!

Weston created countless beautiful and meaningful photographs, with the simplest of equipment and no enlargers – all contact prints made using a bare bulb!  For this alone he should be an inspiration to all of us, especially to those who obsess over owning the latest camera(s), the latest and most expensive lenses and the question of which format to use.

Hey, I once drove almost a 400 mile round trip to see an outstanding exhibit of Weston’s work at the Michener Museum before I moved to Doylestown. I’m certain that experience that must have had an impact upon my decision to move here!

I feel very lucky to own many of his wonderful monographs and a first edition of the Daybooks. For those that don’t I suggest you add them to your library and study them often.

Stay safe,

Michael