tion was a mainstay of Weston’s experience in
Mexico, where he lived until late 1926, save for a
six-month respite in California in 1925.
Returning to California permanently in 1927,
Weston took up an intense study of organic subject
matter, focusing primarily on fruits and vegetables
and shells, isolated and in sharp focus. This set of
subjects is one of the hallmarks of Weston’s work,
along with his female nudes and California land-
scapes. It was the form itself, not the objects, which
Weston found compelling. He sent prints to Mod-
otti in Mexico, and she showed them to several of
their friends in the artistic community. All were
struck by the sensuality of the photographs, which
elicited a strong physical response. Between 1929
and 1930, Weston made 43 exposures of peppers as
well as his first landscapes at Point Lobos, Califor-
nia. It was a particularly fruitful time for Weston,
who maintained a Spartan lifestyle in order to leave
as much time as possible for photography.
Weston’s reputation was growing. More than 30
exhibits featured his work between 1930 and 1932,
most notably his first one-man show at the Delphic
Gallery in New York City. The first monograph of
his work,The Art of Edward Weston, was published
in 1932, largely due to the efforts of the impresario
Merle Armitage. The short-lived Group f/64 was
formed in 1932 and included Weston, Ansel
Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke,
and Weston’s prote ́ge ́ Sonya Noskowiak, among
others. The group’s name was drawn from the
aperture setting of the lens that allowed for max-
imum detail in both foreground and background.
The tenets of Group f/64 were based on Weston’s
purist doctrines, namely that the final image of a
photograph is envisioned in the moment of its
making. Weston only made contact prints, never
resizing, retouching, or manipulating an image.
Weston met Charis Wilson in 1934 in Carmel,
California, where he had a studio for portraiture
and also sold his prints. His initial subject matter in
Carmel was primarily seascapes, trees, and rocks,
then the surrounding cliffs. These naturalist photo-
graphs—which include some of Weston’s best
known images—set him apart from other photo-
graphers who espoused Modernism and chose the
cityscape as their primary subject matter. With
sales waning during the Depression, Weston closed
the Carmel studio the following year and accepted
a job with the Federal Art Project under the Works
Progress Administration (WPA). The new post
took Weston to Santa Monica, and Wilson soon
joined him there, setting up house together.
Weston was the first photographer to be awarded
a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1937, he received a
one-year fellowship for $2,000, to continue his series
of photographs of the West. For the first time in his
life, Weston was able to earn his living doing artistic
photography, rather than the portraiture which had
been his mainstay. Phil Hanna, the editor ofWest-
ways, the magazine of the Southern California Auto
Club, helped organize the itinerary for the Guggen-
heim trips. Weston and Wilson signed a contract with
Westwaysfor eight to ten Weston prints for each
monthly issue, with captions from Wilson. The Gug-
genheim trips took Weston and Wilson throughout
California, including a jaunt through Yosemite Na-
tional Park with Ansel Adams. Weston received a
second Guggenheim Fellowship in 1938. With finan-
cial support from the fellowship, Weston began pre-
paring 100 prints in 1939 for an installation at the
Huntington Library near Pasadena, California. Ed-
ward Weston and Charis Wilson, already longtime
collaborators, were married in 1939, following Wes-
ton’s divorce from Flora.California and the West,the
book resulting from the Guggenheim travels, was
published in 1940.
The Limited Editions Club commissioned Weston
to illustrate an edition of Walt Whitman’sLeaves of
Grass, and in 1941, Weston and Wilson began travel-
ing through 38 U.S. states to photograph for the
book. Their travels were cut short by World War II,
and they settled at Wildcat Hill, a house in Carmel
built by Weston’s son Neil. Weston would live out his
years at Wildcat Hill, succumbing to the ravages of
Parkinson’s disease. Weston made his last photo-
graph,Eroded Rocks, South Shore, Point Lobos,in- Although his motor skills were compromised
by Parkinson’s, Weston continued to work, printing
negatives with the help of his son, Brett. The last
decade of Weston’s life saw a major retrospective in
Paris in 1950 andThe World of Edward Weston,
which Beaumont and Nancy Newhall organized for
the Smithsonian Institution. Weston died January 1,
1958, at his home. He continues to be an icon of the
world of photography and has had several significant
posthumous showings, including an exhibition com-
paring his photographs with the work of Robert
Mapplethorpe at the University of California at Riv-
erside/California Museum of Photography in 1995.
LindaLevitt
Seealso:Adams, Ansel; Group f/64; Modernism;
Modotti, Tina; Works Progress Administration
Biography
Born in Highland Park, Illinois, 24 March 1886. Attended
Illinois College of Photography, 1908. Opened portrait
studio, Tropico, California, 1911; Opened portrait stu-
dio, Mexico City, 1923; Opened studio, Carmel, Cali-WESTON, EDWARD