Edward Henry Weston was born on March 24, 1886, in Illinois. At 16 he received a camera from his father, thus beginning his photography career. Weston's earliest photos were taken at a park in Chicago and his aunt's farm. In 1908, Weston finished a 12-month course in just 6 months at Illinois College of Photography in Effingham, Illinois.

1911年，韦斯顿在加州开设了自己的肖像工作室，这是他接下来20年的工作基地。韦斯顿在柔焦、绘画风格摄影中取得了成功；多次获得沙龙及专业奖项。韦斯顿因高调肖像（high key portraits）和现代舞蹈研究获得了国际声誉。

In 1911, Weston opened his own portrait studio in California, this was where he worked for the next 20 years. Weston gained success in Soft Focus and painting style photography; he was given many salons and professional awards. Weston earned international fame with high key portraits and his studies on modern dance.

1912年，韦斯顿遇到了摄影师玛格丽特·马瑟（Margrethe Mather）。马瑟成为了他的工作室助理，接下来十年的模特。马瑟对韦斯顿有很大的影响。韦斯顿后来称她为“我生命中第一个重要的女人”。

In 1912, Weston met photographer Margreth Mather. Later, she became the assistant of the studio and the model for the next 10 years. Mather had a great influence on Weston, which he called her "the first important woman in my life".

1922年，韦斯顿参观了位于俄亥俄州的ARMCO钢铁厂（ARMCO Steel Plant）。在这段时间拍摄的照片是韦斯顿职业生涯的一个转折点，他放弃了画派风格，转而强调抽象的形式和更清晰的细节。工业照片是真实直接、忠于现实的。

In 1922, Weston visited the ARMCO Steel Plant located in Ohio. The photos made there became a turning point in his career: he gave up the painting style and emphasized abstraction in form and clarity in details. The industrial photographs were true straight images: unpretentious, and true to reality.

20世纪20年代，摄影已经成为美国文化的一部分。摄影师们忙着拍摄人物、地点和事件的照片。韦斯顿帮助促进了一种全新的观看方式。他拍摄了高耸的山峰和一小撮鹅卵石，“伟大的主题”和相对琐碎的东西。他对纯粹的美学感兴趣，对任何有引人注目的线条、纹理、形状或光线的东西都感兴趣。

In the 20s of the 20th century, photography has become a part of American culture. Photographers were busy photographing people, locations, and events. Weston helped promoted a brand new way of seeing. He photographed a tall mountain peak and a pile of cobblestone, a "grand theme" and relatively trivial things. He was interested in pure aesthetics and any eye-catching lines, textures, shapes, or light.

韦斯顿是最早坚持将平凡升华为艺术的摄影师之一。他拍摄风化的门口、鸡蛋、水果、岩石、眼镜和卷心菜，努力捕捉每一种事物的本质。韦斯顿的拍摄对象因被拍摄而变得重要。

He was one of the first photographers who persisted in lifting ordinary to art. He shot eroded doors, eggs, fruits, rocks, glasses, and cabbage, tried hard to capture the essence of everything. Weston’s subjects became important because they had been photographed.

只要能引人注目地呈现出来，任何东西作为拍摄对象都是恰当。

Absolutely anything was appropriate, if it could be compellingly presented.

韦斯顿的摄影生涯刚开始时受到了画家的很大影响，是各种摄影“流派”中最保守的一派。画家们认为照片应该模仿绘画，应该用照相机再现绘画的效果。韦斯顿早期的照片，真实的画派风格，倾向于使用柔焦和梦幻的照明。

Early in his career, Weston was strongly influenced by painters, which he belonged to the most conservative faction among all photography styles. Painters believed that photos should emulate paintings, they should use the camera to reproduce their effect. Weston's early photos were in real painting style, which tended to use soft-focus and dreamy lighting.

在遇到Stieglitz、Paul Strand和其他现实主义者的作品后，韦斯顿改变了自己的想法和风格。他开始使用更大画幅的相机来拍摄纯摄影照片，其精确度和清晰度都非常高。纯摄影成为韦斯顿、安塞尔·亚当斯(Ansel Adams)等西方摄影师的标志。

Weston changed his ideas and style after meeting Stieglitz, Paul Strand, and other realists and their works. He began to use larger-format cameras to shoot pure photography images, the accuracy and the clarity were both very high. Pure photography became Weston, Ansel Adams, and other western photographers' symbol.

1932年，韦斯顿与安塞尔·亚当斯(Ansel Adams)成为f/64集团的创始成员之一，这个团队都相信使用小光圈来实现极深的景深。

In 1932, Weston and Ansel Adams became two of the founding members of Group f/64 Group, the team believed in using small apertures to make extreme depth of field.

1936年，韦斯顿开始拍摄大洋洲的裸体和沙丘系列。为韦斯顿写传记的Ben Maddow认为，韦斯顿拍摄的裸体照片是因他与模特之间存在色情之事。Kenneth Clark说：“成功的裸体照片是会在观众中激起一些色情的痕迹。”韦斯顿强烈地否认他的裸体是色情的。色情艺术证明了艺术家对他的对象有一定程度的性欲，而韦斯顿的裸体照片根本没有表现出太多的欲望，模特的四肢和躯干以及整个人物仅像美学的形状，只能像观看光滑的石头一样享受。韦斯顿仅仅是根据模特的美感，自由地摆姿势，而拍摄她们。韦斯顿把人物当成植物在拍摄。Robert Adams 认为若用这些照片来衡量韦斯顿作为艺术家的成就，大部分都是沉闷的，不仅艺术上失败，个人也是失败的，裸体记录的不是欲望，而是一种悲伤的发明和凝视。

Beginning in 1936, Weston began to photograph nudes and sandhills of Oceania. Ben Maddow who wrote Weston's biography believed Weston shoots nude photos because he and the models have sexual relationships. Kenneth Clark suggested that pictures of nudes must, to be successful, “ arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling.” Weston strongly opposed that his nude works are sexual. Rather, it proves that artists have some extent of sexual desires for their subjects, yet Weston's nude photos did not present a lot of lust. The limbs of the models, the bodies, and the whole figure are just similar to aesthetic shapes, they can only be appreciated like a smooth stone. Weston was just taking pictures of the beauty of the models and their poses. Weston shoots people as plants. Robert Adams thought it would be mostly dreary to evaluate Weston's success as an artist based on these photos. But beyond the artistic failure there is the evidence they carry of personal failure. The nudes record not desire, but a sad sort of invention and staring.

在加拉福尼亚这段时期完成的作品，通常被认为是他最好的作品之一。韦斯顿于 1936 年成为第一批获得古根海姆奖学金的摄影师。韦斯顿1958年1月1日在家中去世，骨灰散落在太平洋中的Point Lobos。

The works completed in California were generally considered to be one of his best works. Weston became the first group of photographers to get Guggenheim Fellowship in 1936. On January 1, 1958, Weston passed away in his house, the ashes were scattered in Point Lobos of the Pacific Ocean.

Cabbage Leaf 1931

Church Door ，Hornitos 1940

Hot Coffee，Mojave Desert 1937

Shell 1927

Pepper 1930

Tina with Tear 1924

Nahui Olin 1923

Nude 1936

图片来自于：edward-weston.com / Pictures are from：edward-weston.com

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