Kim Weston (photographer)


Kim Weston is an American photographer known for his fine art nude studies.
Weston is a third-generation member of one of the most well-recognized families in modern photography, which includes his grandfather Edward Weston, his uncle Brett Weston, and his father Cole Weston.
Kim Weston's experience with the art of traditional black and white photography was cultivated assisting his father and his uncle in their respective darkrooms.

Life and work

Weston's artist's statement says "I make pictures which are meant to be direct and truthful. I do not explain or rationalize this work or my passion for it. I leave it to the viewer to find the surprises. I hope the work generates feelings; otherwise I have failed."
He learned photography "assisting his father, Cole Weston, in the darkroom making gallery prints from the original negatives of his grandfather, Edward Weston." He also worked for fifteen years as an assistant to his uncle, Brett Weston.
Weston first photographed using a Rolleiflex twin lens reflex camera. When he reached his twenties, his main camera was a 4×5 Linhof - a gift from his uncle Brett Weston. He used this camera for many years, his interest shifting from photographing rocks and trees in the traditional Weston family style to nude figure studies. In his thirties he switched to an 8×10 Calumet given to him by his father. His studio nudes were becoming quite complex, often telling stories of his life in each series. Weston now photographs with a medium format Mamiya RB67 he inherited from his father. He prints 8×10, 11×14 and 16×20. He still develops, prints, and finishes his own work.
In 2004, Weston began applying oil paints, pastels, watercolors, and colored pencils to his silver gelatin prints.
"My painted photographs have given me a release from surface importance and visual certainty. I can take my image and tweak it to another dimension which if I think about it was my original direction and interpretation of the subject to begin with." Kim Weston

Weston "founded the Weston Scholarship Fund in 2004 to support high school and college students studying fine-art, black and white, film photography in Monterey County."
Weston lives on Wildcat Hill in Carmel Highlands, CA, Edward Weston's former home, with his wife, Gina, and his son, Zachary, where he teaches several photography workshops every year. The pine-wood cabin on Wildcat Hill, designed by Edward's third son Neil, was built in 1938.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions