Daybooks

For more than fifteen years, Edward Weston kept a diary in which he recorded his struggle to understand himself, his society, and his medium. Seldom has an artist written about his life as vividly, intimately, or sensitively. His journal has become a classic of photographic literature.A towering figure in twentieth-century photography, Weston sought to awaken human vision. His restless quest for beauty and the mystical presence behind it created a body of work unrivaled in the medium. For more than fifteen years, Edward Weston kept a diary in which he recorded his struggle to understand himself, his society, and his medium. Seldom has an artist written about his life as vividly, intimately, or sensitively. His journal has become a classic of photographic literature.A towering figure in twentieth-century photography, Weston sought to awaken human vision. His restless quest for beauty and the mystical presence behind it created a body of work unrivaled in the medium. "It was as though the things of everyday experience had been transformed . . . into organic sculptures, the forms of which were both the expression and the justification of the life within . . . He had freed his eyes of conventional expectation, and had taught them to see the statement of intent that resides in natural form." --John Szarkowski.