From nudes to landscapes, a wide-ranging retrospective of the work of Edward Weston, one of the greatest twentieth-century American photographers. This gorgeous volume shows the work of one of the major twentieth-century artists whose output has influenced the very conception of photography for generations to come. After abandoning pictorial photography, Weston turned his interest in the direction of realism, developing his own original style based on the quest for a pure form to express his contemporary world. He believed that the world around him, whether it be the face of a woman, a place, or a vegetable, did not require special devices to be recorded: in fact, he felt that it is inside the mind that things become proud-looking sculptures, objects that seem to come to life on their own. This thoughtful selection of 110 photographs is an eloquent testimony to Weston's teachings, bearing witness to the experiences that contributed to making him the artist he was: from his interest in modernism and cubism to his years in Mexico, where he shared the echoes of European surrealism with the local artists; from his decision to move to Point Lobos, a location that was of crucial importance to the development of his vision of the landscape, to his intense relationships with women who were his muses and companions in his everyday life as well as in his photography.

Filippo Maggia is currently researcher at the Photography Department of the Royal College of Art. Since 2010, he has taught photographic documentation at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Catania. Among his previous titles published by Skira are Araki Gold (2008), New Photography in Britain (2008), Daido Moriyama (2010), and Yasuzo Nojima (2011).