Black and White Photographers

Biographies

Don Worth was born in 1924, in Nebraska. He spent the early part of his life studying music , playing music, and even attending a music school, where he received his Master of Music degree. His love for photography began when he studied under Ansel Adams in 1956. By 1962, he was teaching photography at the university of San Francisco. When he was a child, growing up in Iowa, he was very interested in plants, which is the subject of the majority of his photographs. As a boy, he even built a subtropical garden near his home. Before his death in 2009, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and featured in many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

Brett Weston was born in 1911 in California, and first picked up a camera at the age of thirteen, borrowing his father's on the mexican coast. His father, Edward Weston, was also a famous photographer, and so his son was familiar with the art. He spent just over a year in Mexico, but remembered it fondly and spoke about it often. In 1925, he began taking pictures, and in 1927, he started showing them. By age 17, he had been featured in a museum, and by 21 was starting his own retrospective at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.

Compare and Contrast

Both artist have individual traits in their photographs, but they also have things in common. Both men enjoy taking close up, sharp images of things you encounter every day but may not notice, such as plants or puddles. They also both use value in their photos to highlight the contrast in the photos, which makes them more interesting to view. As far as differences go, there are also some present. Don Worth photographed plants exclusively, whereas Brett Weston took pictures of many things. Also, Don Worth used lots of close-up shots to show detail in nearly all his photos, but Brett Weston was not afraid to step back, even doing a series of photos of the dunes in Death Valley.

Critique

The work of both these men is comparable, and I enjoy looking at both portfolios. Each displays a master's ability to handle contrast, value, and composition, all while making the photos look natural. This said, I prefer the work of Brett Weston over Don Worth. I say this mainly because of Brett's subject matter. he did many serieses featuring abstract things, clear things, and even some portraiture in his "Underwater Nude" collection. I prefer his ability to draw the eye to things often overlooked, such as grease bubbles in a pan, or water on the sidewalk, and think his work is overall more interesting to look at.