Lindford, SarahSmyth, CarolynItzkowich, Vanessa Adena2024-05-292024-05-292023Itzkowich, Vanessa Adena. "Edward Weston Nude Portraits in Mexico". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2023.https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14490/39Thesis (B.A. in Humanistic Studies)--John Cabot University, Spring 2023.Edward Weston, one of the most profound modernist photographers of the 20th century, is celebrated for his abstract compositions. While the public’s perception of Weston has become synonymous with natural phenomena, for most of his career, Weston devotes himself to figurative exploration. This thesis asks: is it possible to trace and reassess Weston’s nude studies through contemporary art historical parameters? Chapter one is a literature review outlining the issues from various scholars’ assessment of Weston’s approach to capturing the female nude, which focuses mainly on the photographer’s work after 1927. Unfortunately, these studies fail to recognize the significance of the photographer’s work in Mexico between 1923 and 1926, which contain different avenues of exploration. This thesis aims to uncover how the photographer’s approach relates to other profound modernists by building off existing formal parameters from construction and drawing. The following two chapters will review Weston’s primary artistic references throughout his Mexican period and how they contribute to the photographer’s compositional structure. The final chapter assesses how Weston’s aesthetic changes after exposure to Diego Rivera and other Mexican Muralistsvi, 41 pagesenAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Edward Weston, 1886-1958Photography ArtisticEdward Weston Nude Portraits in MexicoThesis