Selected Group Exhibitions
1966 Contemporary Photography Since 1950; George East-
man House; Rochester, New York
1967 Photography in the Fine Arts; Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York, New York
1967 Photography in the Twentieth Century; George East-
man House; Rochester, New York
1972 Visual Dialogue Foundation; Carmel, California
1974 Photography in America; Whitney Museum of Amer-
ican Art, New York, New York
1978 Museo De Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
1979 Teacher’s Legacy: My Teacher, Myself; Susan Spiritus
Gallery, Newport Beach, California
1984 Photography in California 1945–1980; San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
2000 The Visual Dialogue Foundation Revisited, 2000; J.J.
Brookings Gallery, San Francisco, California
2001 Capturing Light, Masterpieces of California Photogra-
phy, 1850–2000; Oakland Museum of California, Oak-
land, California
Selected Works
Kathleen Kelly, 1972
Sabine, Arles, France, 1973
Near Sacramento, 1975
The Ramparts, Financial District, San Francisco, 1980
Sherry, 1980
Verrieres, 1981
Brooke, 1986
Shining Stocking, 1987
Dancer, 1994Further Reading
Amanda Hopkinson, ed. Contemporary Photographers.
Detroit: St. James Press, 1995.
Witkin, Lee D., and London, Barbara.The Photography Col-
lector’s Guide. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979.EDWARD WESTON
American
‘‘Edward had come to be viewed as chief among the
so-called purists,’’ wrote Charis Wilson, Edward
Weston’s second wife, traveling companion, and
collaborator. As a photographer, Weston was in-
deed a purist. Foremost, he was an advocate for
photography as its own genre, not as one that
attempted to imitate painting. In this regard, Wes-
ton is philosophically linked to Alfred Stieglitz’s
Photo-Secession movement. Weston’s prints were
always ‘‘straight’’—he did not manipulate negatives
or prints, and chose to use large cameras that
allowed him to make 57 and 810 contact prints.
Edward Weston was born March 24, 1886 inHigh-
land Park, Illinois. Weston’s mother died when he
was five years old, and his older sister May played a
formidable role in his upbringing. Weston shot his
first photographs with a Kodak Bulls-Eye #2, a gift
from his father, in 1902. The Bulls-Eye took 3½
3½-inch photos and Weston, enthused by his success-
ful photographs, soon saved money to buy a second-
hand 57 format camera with a ground glass and
tripod. Quitting high school the following year, Wes-
ton went to work at Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago.
He continued to make photographs in his spare time.
That same year Weston visited the Ninth American
Salon at the Chicago Art Institute. Although no well-
known photographers were represented at the Salon,
the work he saw there left a strong impression.
Weston’s sister May had married John Seaman
and moved to Tropico (now Glendale), California
near Los Angeles. He visited the Seamans in 1906
and decided to stay on in California. Weston’s
brother-in-law found him work as a surveyor’s
helper. With his earnings, Weston purchased a post-
card camera and made some extra money, often
photographing the funerals of infant immigrant
children. Weston’s spare time was also occupied by
a budding romance with his sister’s friend, Flora
May Chandler. Concerned with his prospects as a
breadwinner, Weston returned to Chicago to attend
the Illinois College of Photography. He studied
there for nearly a year, learning techniques for por-
trait photography. Uninspired by the college, Wes-
ton left Chicago without completing his degree. He
and Flora were married in January 1909 and their
first son, Edward Chandler, was born the followingWELPOT, JACK