Edward Weston: Dunes, Oceana (1936)

Edward Weston’s 1936 photograph, Dunes Oceana, presents the abstract forms of the western landscape while simultaneously offering different interpretations of beauty and desolation found in the desert dunes.  The overwhelming blackness in the centre suggests an unidentifiable void, but the subtle and striking horizontal lines apparent in the highlights of the dunes’ contours, creating fantastic and powerful diagonals, suggests form and depth. By removing a clear foreground, Weston places the viewer right on the edge of one of the great dunes, giving the viewer the impression of total immersion in the landscape.