For the large-scale photographs in this exhibition, Los Angeles photographer Robert Weingarten established a single viewpoint, looking southeast over Santa Monica Bay, from which every photograph in the series would be made with the camera in exactly the same position. Each exposure would be made at precisely the same time of day—6:30 a.m.—measured by a quartz clock. All exposures were made with the lens focused on infinity and at the same aperture of f/22. Just two variables were allowed into this disciplined scheme: the shutter speed of the lens, which would be adjusted faster or slower depending on the quantity and quality of light available at 6:30 a.m. each day; and, the most variable element of all, changes in the scene that were introduced by the forces of nature. The resulting images are at once conceptual and an homage to a city at the edge of the North American continent, showcasing the unique light conditions that inform life here.
Robert Weingarten graduated from Baruch College, CUNY in 1962 with a degree in finance. For the next 30 years he pursued a career in finance and served as CEO and chairman of several financial international institutions. His first and most abiding passion from youth was photography, which he pursued over all those years, as time would permit. For the last 20 years, he’s been fully committed to his photographic art. Weingarten’s work has been featured in more than 96 exhibitions worldwide, most of them solo exhibitions. He has earned the distinction Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society (FRPS) Bath, England, and his images are in the permanent collections of 35 museums, including the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Art, LACMA, The Museum of Contemporary Art, MoCA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Arts, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Australia, and George Eastman House Museum of Photography and Film.