fbpx
Edward Weston
Pipes and Stacks, 1922, printed later

In many accounts of Weston’s career, this photograph is held up as marking his conversion to Modernism. At the time he took it, Weston operated a commercial photography studio in Southern California, where he was known for soft-focus portraits. An adherent of Pictorialism, a dreamy style intended to resemble Victorian painting, Weston began to experiment with new approaches to the medium in the early 1920s.

On a trip to New York to bring his work to Alfred Stieglitz, Weston stopped off to visit his sister in Ohio, where he made this negative. Unlike his earlier work, it is crisply focused, tightly ordered, and shows a modern subject. His shift toward Modernism was not as abrupt as is often suggested, however. He did not have an instantaneous conversion experience, as some accounts would have us believe, but rather experimented for some time before producing this fully realized example of modernist photography.

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Pipes and Stacks
Artist name
Edward Weston
Date created
1922, printed later
Classification
photograph
Medium
gelatin silver print
Dimensions
9 7/16 in. × 7 9/16 in. (23.97 cm × 19.21 cm)
Date acquired
1962
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Albert M. Bender Collection, Albert M. Bender Bequest Fund purchase
Copyright
© 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/62.1182
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Other Works by Edward Weston

See other works by Edward Weston

Please note that artwork locations are subject to change, and not all works are on view at all times. If you are planning a visit to SFMOMA to see a specific work of art, we suggest you contact us at collections@sfmoma.org to confirm it will be on view.

Only a portion of SFMOMA's collection is currently online, and the information presented here is subject to revision. Please contact us at collections@sfmoma.org to verify collection holdings and artwork information. If you are interested in receiving a high resolution image of an artwork for educational, scholarly, or publication purposes, please contact us at copyright@sfmoma.org.

This resource is for educational use and its contents may not be reproduced without permission. Please review our Terms of Use for more information.