Getty Museum

Paul Jordan-Smith

Edward Weston

Date

1922

Medium

Palladium print

Culture

American

Department

Photographs

Institution

Getty Museum

> Friends and colleagues were important sources of inspiration for Edward Weston throughout his life. Particularly in his early career, Weston's intellectual and artistic circles, which included a community of California photographers, poets, writers, and sculptors, provided an environment in which his creative energies could thrive. He made portraits of many of his closest associates. The photographs he created of friends were more experimental and artistic in nature than those he made for studio clients; for the portraits of his friends, Weston capitalized on dramatic lighting, full-frame composition, and hand gestures to capture something more complex than simply his sitter's visage. > > Paul Jordan-Smith (1895-1971), a professor and bibliophile, was well versed in psychology and best known at the time for his book *The Soul of Woman: An Interpretation of the Philosophy of Feminism* (ca. 1916). He sat for Weston here with a cigarette to his lips and a confident gaze away from the camera. > > Brett Abbott. *Edward Weston*, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005), 22. ©2005, J. Paul Getty Trust.

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