ABSTRACT
Edward Weston is, perhaps, unusual in that unlike many other photographers his work has been dominated by his own writing. It is therefore not accidental that in the title of this chapter, the author place feminism before photography and psychoanalysis. If Marxism proposes that struggle exists between classes then feminism proposes that struggle exists between sexes; and psychoanalysis proposes that struggle exists within ourselves. Psychoanalysis has also been important for feminism in providing evidence that subjects are formed through sexuality. Precisely because psychoanalysis occupies a unique space between nature/ culture, between the biological/the social, it can provide a way out of this stagnant binary logic of dominant photographic history, criticism and practice into an area which is less mapped out. It is perfectly possible to produce idealist psychoanalytic interpretations. The major benefit of interposing the camera between his eye and the nude was to gain a more fundamental knowledge of reality.
