Edward Weston was born in Illinois and made his first photographs in 1902. He moved to California in 1906 and supported himself through commercial portrait work, establishing a studio in Tropico (Glendale), California, in 1911. His photographs made during the 1910s were done in a soft-focus pictorial style. In 1922, he met Alfred Stieglitz in New York; on this trip Weston made his first series of sharply focused images at the Armco Steel plant in Ohio. From that point on, his work was characterized by a strongly composed, sharply focused style; his images were unmanipulated contact prints made with view cameras and the simplest printing equipment.

The time Weston spent in Mexico with Tina Modotti and his son Brett in 1923-24 and a later trip in 1926 were important to the maturation of this style. Later in his life Weston disavowed and destroyed his early pictorial negatives. In 1932 Weston, Willard Van Dyke, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, and others founded Group f/64, dedicated to the principles of straight photography. In 1937 Weston received the first Guggenheim fellowship given to a photographer and with his second wife, Charis Wilson, made a photographic trip through California and western United States. Although his work received much attention, Weston never made a great deal of money from his photography. Late in his life he developed Parkinson's disease and was forced to give up photography.

His sons Brett and Cole continued to print their father's negatives under his supervision until his death, and Cole continued the printing as executor of his father's estate until the collection was sold to the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. Although his work received much attention, Weston never made a great deal of money from his photography. Late in his life he developed Parkinson's disease and was forced to give up photography. His sons Brett and Cole continued to print their father's negatives under his supervision until his death, and Cole continued the printing as executor of his father's estate until the collection was sold to the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona.