Response To: Edward Weston

Edward Weston starts off by examining the difference between a normal photographer and an actual artist. According to his viewpoint, anyone with a camera can be a photographer, but to be a real artist a person needs to appreciate the work they produce. As he states, "both in technique and viewpoint..."(Weston). He thinks a camera should be used as an art form and not as a toy that shoots mundane pictures of little interest. When someone takes a picture it should hold meaning, in that it expresses something to the viewer, such as an emotion or a story. The feeling put into a picture gives it its artistic quality.

The way a camera shoots an image appeals to our eyes in different ways than the image in existence could. When we look at an image we're seeing it at a certain height, from a specific distance, and we're seeing what we want to see, or what we're use to seeing. If we tried to pay close attention to detail in everything we'd be overly focused and there isn't enough time in a day to do this. Yet, Weston appreciates the fact that a camera can take a simple picture and reveal all its details in just a few seconds. Given the right lighting, angle, and usage of the camera, an everyday visual can become an astounding picture. 

Weston speaks about the making of a great artist. The concept of being an artist is based on the person creating the work. Taking a photograph is a simple point and shoot action that anyone could learn to do, but taking a piece of art is based on how the picture is pointed and the way the image is shot. The form of art camera's take is vastly different from the eye of the beholder. A camera can take something beautiful and make it stand out. It can even shoot something grotesque and make you not want to take your eyes off of it.

Not being sure what his take on painting is, the author compares it to photography to make them both seem necessary art forms. Pictures can shoot images in ways that a painter couldn't replicate because of all the details or colors blended together. On the other hand, a painter can make an image from his imagination that you couldn't find in the environment to snap a shot. A painting can be edited during and after the process of creating it, but a camera is more in the moment. Once you take a picture that’s it. If you stand there and retake it, it will look slightly different, and can never be exactly the same. A photographer has a harder position because either they get the shot or they miss it, given the fact they’re trying to create artwork as a result.