Sand Dune 3
Brett Weston
American, 1911–1993
1937
A gelatin silver photograph in which Weston isolates wind-sculpted sand and sharp shadows to transform a desert dune into an abstract study of line, texture, and form.
Your eye is pulled across repeating ripples and carved hollows, their subtle curves and crisp contours made tactile by bright highlights and a deep diagonal shadow that slices the picture into contrasting planes.
This 1930s image exemplifies modernist photography’s turn toward formal abstraction—showing how attention to light, pattern, and scale could elevate a natural scene into a rigorous visual composition that influenced generations of photographers.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
7 1/2 × 9 1/2" (19 × 24.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Albert M. Bender
Accession
39.1939
Palette
Exhibitions
