Edward Weston
Armco Steel, Ohio

Armco Steel, Ohio

© 1981 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

Armco Steel, Ohio
Armco Steel, Ohio
ArtistAmerican, 1886–1958
PrinterAmerican, 1919–2003
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Armco Steel, Ohio
Date1922, printed 1978
Place depictedOhio, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 9 3/16 × 6 11/16 in. (23.4 × 17 cm)
 Sheet: 9 3/16 × 6 11/16 in. (23.3 × 17 cm)
 Mount: 15 × 13 1/4 in. (38.1 × 33.7 cm)
Credit LineThe Target Collection of American Photography, museum purchase funded by Target Stores
Object number78.90
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Special Collections
Object Type
DescriptionEdward Weston took this photograph at the American Rolling Mill Company in Middletown, Ohio, in 1922 while traveling from his California studio to New York City. There, he met Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Charles Sheeler, among others, who influenced Weston to continue his exploration of Modernism in photography. In Armco Steel, Weston created a powerful and overall abstract composition. This effect is derived from the bold and dynamic vertical thrust of seven tall smokestacks that appear as one giant stepped tower, and from the interaction of the smokestacks with the curved and horizontal pipes, all against a background of factory and office buildings that themselves form a Modernist grid. Weston’s photograph symbolizes the power, wealth, and significance of the steel industry in 1920s America. Furthermore, the photograph clearly demonstrates Weston’s complete departure from the Pictorialist style—a soft-focus approach that aimed to put photography on a par with painting—and his recently begun pursuit of a more streamlined, sharply focused aesthetic in picture-making.
Provenance[The Witkin Gallery, Inc., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1978.
Exhibition History“The Will to Architecture,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, April 1–July 6, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
verso top left corner in pencil "IM"
top right "Armco Steel, Ohio, 1922"
bottom left corner "986"
verso of mount center in pencil "Cole Weston"
verso of mount center a stamp "NEGATIVE / BY / Edward Weston / PRINT / BY / [signature]"

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