Many of Kim Weston's most well-recognized photographs were inspired by paintings. In Mr. Weston's expressive black and white photographs, stories like those told through Degas' infamous painted ballerinas leap to new heights.
Edgar Degas
Edgar Degas was a French artist famous for his work in painting, sculpture, printmaking and drawing. He is regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism although he rejected the term, and preferred to be called a realist. A superb draughtsman, he is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over half his works depict dancers. These display his mastery in the depiction of movement, as do his racecourse subjects and female nudes. His portraits are considered to be among the finest in the history of art.
Blurring the distinction between portraiture and genre pieces, Degas painted his bassoonist friend, Désiré Dihau, in The Orchestra of the Opera (1868-69) as one of fourteen musicians in an orchestra pit, viewed as though by a member of the audience. Above the musicians can be seen only the legs and tutus of the dancers onstage, their figures cropped by the edge of the painting. Art historian Charles Stuckey has pointed out that the viewpoint is that of a distracted spectator at a ballet, and that "it is Degas' fascination with the depiction of movement, including the movement of a spectator's eyes as during a random glance, that is properly speaking 'Impressionist'."
Degas' ballerinas exhibit an athletic physicality, while his laundresses are heavy and solid.
Kim Weston Ballerina Series
One-of-a-kind painted photograph by Kim Weston inspired by Edgar Degas.
Oils on gelatin silver print.
Copyright © Kim Weston - All rights reserved.