Edward Weston's Book of Nudes [Hardcover]

Edward Weston (Author), Nancy Newhall (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0892369035 | ISBN-13: 978-0892369034 | Publication Date: September 10, 2007

In 1953 the writer and curator Nancy Newhall assembled, with the cooperation of the photographer Edward Weston, a mock-up for an elegant book featuring Weston's photographs of the nude. It was the only book on this subject that Weston himself participated in creating. The sample book intersperses landscapes and still lifes with nude studies and includes an essay written by Newhall on the artist's aesthetic. The proposal was rejected in the 1950s, however, by publishers of fine art photographs, who were reluctant to address the subject. In 1985 the mock-up was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum with some pages and prints missing, yet it was only in 2006 that curator Brett Abbott recognized the key to reconstructing the unpublished book in its entirety. Now, in association with the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, the Getty has finally been able to realize Newhall and Weston's vision. The present volume has been produced with distinctions of paper and ink to indicate those elements that have been added-including a preface by the curator and thumbnail reproductions of the mock-up as it now exists-and those elements that were part of the original, including Newhall's essay and all thirty-nine photographs, arranged on the pages as Newhall and Weston had placed them.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brett Abbott is assistant curator of photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. Nancy Newhall (1908-1974) was Edward Weston's official biographer and cofounder of Aperture magazine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (September 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892369035
• ISBN-13: 978-0892369034
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 10.7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #607,980 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have for Westonians, November 2, 2008

By 

Timothy S. Shropshire "'rangsmith" (Boulder, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Edward Weston's Book of Nudes (Hardcover)

As a four decade aficionado of this great photographer, I must admit that this volume is a Must Have for your photographic library. Excellent text, Very Well printed halftones. Thank you, Brett Abbott and Nancy Newhall .

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Weston's Retro Nudes, May 23, 2010

By 

F. noyes "f noyes bookworm" - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Edward Weston's Book of Nudes (Hardcover)

A fascinating photographic retrospective of his artistry back in the 30's. It's on my coffee table where it belongs.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Image, February 3, 2008

By 

Cecil Fox (Little Rock, AR United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Edward Weston's Book of Nudes (Hardcover)

There are people, (mostly in New York) who resent photography, confusing it with the blurry, out of focus vacation pictures of the non-technical.
Now I think that art is whatever will sell on 68th street and that Edward Weston was an artist of the highest ranks of people who use a medium to create what they see or feel, in short, art of merit. Production of the volume is good, the comments not too oprobrious and we ar left Edwrd Weston an his models. The book is to be cherished and not left on a coffee table to impress your lumpen friends.