Edward Weston: Modernité Révélée

Curators: Simon Baker, with Polly Fleury and Hope Kingsley

Drawn entirely from the prestigious collection of the Wilson Centre for Photography, this exhibition traces a pivotal moment in the history of photography. It highlights Edward Weston’s radical shift from a refined, pictorialist style—rooted in the conventions of painting—to a precise, direct, and modernist aesthetic.

During this period, Weston refined his approach: he simplified compositions, removed artifice, and focused on lines, forms, and light. He photographed everyday objects—shells, vegetables, bodies, stones—with extreme formal rigour, transforming reality into visual motifs. His photography became a language, a form of sculpture, and a unique way of seeing.

Featuring over a hundred vintage prints, this unprecedented exhibition brings together iconic works rarely—or never—shown in Paris. Alongside Weston’s masterpieces, key pictorialist pieces by Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Anne Brigman offer a rich and original perspective on two major photographic visions.

Weston developed this modern outlook outside the official art circuits. Living and working in California and traveling to Mexico, he distanced himself from centres of power and influence. He sought neither effect nor provocation, but a clarity of vision—a form of quiet revelation.

Exploring the full breadth of Weston’s work—from nudes and still lifes to landscapes and intimate portraits of collaborators such as Tina Modotti—the MEP honours one of the leading figures of photographic modernity. Many of his most emblematic images are displayed in their original hand-printed versions.

Conceived from an original idea by Michael G. Wilson, the exhibition is co-curated by Simon Baker, Director of the MEP, with Polly Fleury and Hope Kingsley of the Wilson Centre for Photography.