Edward Weston
American, 1886­1958
Pepper
1930
Silver gelatin print
23.9 x 19.1 cm
Gift of Max McGraw, 1959.665
© 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents.

This pepper stands out against a dark background, as carefully posed and lit as if this were the portrait of a person. The photograph by Edward Weston makes us see the beauty of this simple vegetable, and demonstrates his belief that “the camera should be used for a recording of life, for rendering the very substance of the thing itself.” 

Weston began as a portrait photographer, but in the mid-1920s turned instead to nature for his subjects.