The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of August 9, 2026

A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph depicts four large, heart-shaped leaves with prominent veins trailing downward against a dark background. Their smooth surfaces reflect light, creating bright highlights. Behind them, feathery fern fronds with serrated edges spread diagonally, their repetitive patterns standing out. On our left, a thin vine with smaller leaves climbs upward. Strong contrast throughout the composition emphasizes the diverse textures of the various plants.

Plants and Leaves, Hawaii

c. 1985

Brett Weston

(American, 1911–1993)
America
gelatin silver print
Image: 34.9 x 26.8 cm (13 3/4 x 10 9/16 in.); Paper: 35.5 x 27.8 cm (14 x 10 15/16 in.)
Gift of the Christian Keesee Collection 2017.168
© The Brett Weston Archive
Location: Not on view

Description

Weston’s photographs are about the act of seeing, of translating his experience of the world into visual terms. His images hover between abstraction and representation. “It seems to me,” Weston wrote, “that this powerful duality, this combination of the abstract, in the emphasis upon form, and the sense of presence, in the rendering of light and substance, is something only photography can do.”
  • Tannenbaum, Barbara. "Natural Eye: Four decades of the work of Brett Weston.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 58, no. 1 (January/February 2018): 8-9. Reproduced: P. 9; Mentioned: P. 8, 9 archive.org
  • Brett Weston: Photographs. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 21-May 6, 2018).
  • {{cite web|title=Plants and Leaves, Hawaii|url=false|author=Brett Weston|year=c. 1985|access-date=09 August 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2017.168