Radishes, photo by Harold Davis. View this image larger.
I’ve been reading The Daybooks of Edward Weston. Actually, I should say I’ve been re-reading; but way back these did not make such an impression on me.
Weston is a photographer I admire tremendously. There’s a great deal to be learned about photography from his words, and (more importantly) from his photos.
In my life situation, it is certainly amusing to read of his irritation at being “nurse maid and policeman” for his three boys—and the trials and tribulations of having his subject matter (like a couple of his famous peppers) eaten by his son Brett. And the pumpkins he photographed that ended up as pumpkin pie.
Of course, my love life is a great deal less exciting than Weston’s; the multiple involvements with his subjects, who all seemed to have danced for him in the nude, is part of the appeal of reading Weston’s diary.
And diary the Weston Daybooks are. Or perhaps proto-blog. I realize now that my blog, with all its fits and starts, rambles, and musings about photo technique, my kids, and photographic philosophy is really an electronic daybook.
Of course, we ate the radishes!
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Holger Mischke
5 Feb 2017Harold, I totally agree. First about the fact that often you have to re-read books to find the moment they can actually mean something to you. Or they mean something else or more to you at another point in your life, in your evolution.
And also that Weston’s daybooks are similar to what our blogs are. Only that we now can share with the whole world, access them from anywhere and search them to find thoughts we had.
I’m now trying to get my hands on a copy of Weston’s daybooks and start blogging regularly. I’m thinking regularly, i might as well jot it down.
Thanks for the inspiration, Harold.
Best, Holger