Revealing the invisible: Edward Weston and the birth of modern photography

A major photography exhibition dedicated to Edward Weston has opened at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in Paris, running from October 15th, 2025 to January 25th, 2026. Bringing together more than 100 vintage prints, the show offers a rare look at one of the defining figures in the history of photography, tracing how Weston transformed from a pictorialist experimenter into a pioneer of modernist vision.

A photography exhibition reframing a modernist icon

Edward Weston — Becoming Modern draws exclusively from the Wilson Centre for Photography’s renowned collection, allowing visitors to see many works never before shown in France. The exhibition charts the photographer’s departure from the painterly softness of Pictorialism, and his adoption of a crisper, more refined aesthetic that highlights form, clarity and the essence of everyday life.

Curators present this shift as a pivotal moment in the history of photography, when Weston abandoned artistic conventions to pursue a uniquely photographic language. His images of shells, vegetables, stones and bodies, stripped of decoration and crafted with meticulous precision, reveal his belief that even the most ordinary of subjects could contain a profound inner life.

Tracing a turning point in the history of photography

The exhibition spans more than three decades of Weston’s practice, from early 1910s pictorialist prints to the radically modern work of the 1930s and 1940s. Early soft-focus studies are exhibited alongside pieces by contemporaries such as Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, and Anne Brigman, creating a dialogue between two competing visions: photography as an echo of painting versus photography as a distinct, autonomous art form.

Key works and artistic highlights

Among the most striking pieces are Weston’s close-up studies of natural forms. Magnified peppers, spiraling shells, and architectural cabbages are presented not as still lifes but as sculptural abstractions. Through tight framing and sharp focus, Weston transforms these everyday objects into near-monumental motifs, reflecting his modernist belief that beauty is embedded in structure and light.

Another section focuses on his time in Mexico in the 1920s, where collaborations with photographer and activist Tina Modotti helped push his work toward bolder, more radical expression. Portraits and nudes from this period reveal an openness and confidence that would shape his later style.

The exhibition also features evocative black-and-white landscapes of the Californian coastline, particularly Point Lobos, where twisted rocks, windswept dunes and stark shadows offer a meditation on the architecture of nature.

A landmark exhibition for Paris

Co-curated by Simon Baker and Laurie Hurwitz of MEP with Polly Fleury and Hope Kingsley of the Wilson Centre for Photography, Edward Weston — Becoming Modern brings fresh insight into an artist whose vision helped redefine 20th-century photography. By placing his early influences in conversation with his mature work, the exhibition shows how Weston continually refined his approach, moving steadily toward a pure, essential form of modernism.