Edward Weston is so deeply established in the pantheon of Great Photographers—and his photographs are so broadly disseminated and familiar—that it is difficult to imagine him as the new kid on the photographic block. Yet, that is precisely what he was when, in 1906, one of his photographs appeared in print for the first time.
This propitious introduction came in the form of Spring (Conger 2/1903), a sylvan 1903 image in which a winding path meanders through a wooded glade in Chicago’s Washington Park. Weston’s fine eye for composition is already apparent in this early landscape which debuted, appropriately enough for its vernal theme (and the equivalent “spring” of Weston’s career), in the April 1906 issue of Camera and Dark-Room.[2] The magazine praised it in their “Picture Criticism” column as follows: “E.H. Weston— ‘Spring,’ although it bears all the earmarks of having been made later in the year, is a more than ordinarily successful rendering of a wooded landscape. The composition is highly satisfactory and the treatment shows that the maker is possessed of considerable artistic taste as well as technical ability. The print, which is on a rough developing paper, is very pleasing to the eye, but the quality of the negative seems better suited to platinum. Objection may be made to the strong halation in the topmost branches, but in this case it is well made use of to give the necessary effect of distance and atmosphere. We hope to see more of Mr. Weston’s work.”
Despite the hopeful closing note, this proved the only reference to, or photograph by, Weston to appear in the pages of Camera and Dark-Room, which ceased publication in 1906 to merge with American Amateur Photographer.
Two months later another Weston landscape, Rushes in Winter (Not in Conger), received a scathing appraisal in the “Our Portfolio” column of the June 1906 issue of American Amateur Photographer.[3] Unfortunately for posterity, the photograph itself is not illustrated, but the reviewer unabashedly lambastes it as follows: “2135. Ed. H. Weston—‘Rushes in Winter.’ We cannot say anything in favor of this. A perfectly white sky and an equally white mass of what may be snow below, with masses of gray lines on either side, forms a poor subject, poorly photographed, the fault being much under-exposure and overdevelopment.”
Weston created Spring and Rushes in Winter while he was still in his late teens living in Chicago. Their inclusion in national photographic magazines early in 1906 evinces Weston’s youthful dedication to his art, his active engagement in promoting his work, and his keen awareness of major photography periodicals prior to his departure for California.[4] One cannot help but wonder which and how many photographs he sent out into the world at this time in the hope of garnering attention for his work.
The next Weston photograph to appear in print was Tropico, California (Not in Conger), illustrated in the “Our Portfolio” column of the March 1908 issue of American Photography.[5] Once again, Weston’s effort received a less than flattering reception: “E.H. Weston.— ‘Tropico, California,’ might have been an interesting topographical view but for the dominating white paper sky, and the hardly less white ridge by which the mountain is represented. The arrangement or composition is very good, especially in the way in which the whole is watched over and protected by the tropical looking tree on the left; but for a subject of this kind the lens has not been nearly sufficiently focused,—the whole should have been much sharper.”
How ironic to read of Weston, a progenitor of “straight,” sharply focused photography, being criticized for a deficiency of focus back in Pictorialist oriented 1908.
This Tropico landscape actually dates to 1907, when Weston “published” the view himself as a real photographic post card. An example in the collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc. was sent by Edward’s sister, May Weston Seaman, to a Mrs. C.F. Randal in Keene, New Hampshire. Weston inscribed the photograph in the negative at lower left: “Tropico, Cal. / Weston-Photo;” it is postmarked “TROPICO, / DEC / 26 / P.M. / 1907;” and hand addressed, in ink to: “Mrs. C.F. Randal / 77 Water St. / Keene / N.H.” The brief message from May reads: “Dec. 25 – 07. / I send with this view of our Valley, a box of pepper boughs. Hope it will be as pretty when it reaches you. We are pretty well and happy, and building a tiny home nest. A happy new year to you from May.”[6]
Following his debuts in Camera and Darkroom, American Amateur Photographer, and American Photography, Camera Craft finally took notice of Weston by awarding Second Prize in its April 1908 Competition to his wintry landscape Snow Drifts (Not in Conger). The award was announced and the photograph illustrated one month later in their June issue without, alas, any commentary.[7]
Given the similarity between this and other snow scenes Weston photographed in Chicago, it is reasonable to attribute a 1906 or earlier date to this work as well. In fact, one wonders whether Snow Drifts might be the same Rushes in Winter, critiqued so brutally in the above noted June 1906 issue of American Amateur Photographer.
Despite its initial displeasure with Tropico in March 1908, American Photography began assessing Weston’s work with increasing favor as 1908 wore on and subsequent years ensued. In August 1908 they awarded Weston an Honorable Mention in their “Monthly Competition” for Priscilla (Not in Conger), a nostalgic depiction of a young woman in Colonial costume working hearthside at a spinning wheel.[8]
In February 1909 Weston received a second Honorable Mention, this time for Helen (Not in Conger), a contemplative portrait of a young woman seated in profile at a window bench, her face bathed in light filtering through the curtains.[9] “Helen” is Helen (aka Nell aka Eleanor) Cole, a family friend and the photogenic subject of a number of his early portraits. In May 1910, The Camera illustrated another portrait of Helen Cole, which, given the identical clothes, similar reflective attitude and use of lighting was likely taken at the same sitting as the Camera Craft portrait (see discussion, below).
Weston rose a bit in the ranks of American Photography’s Competitions with a Third Prize for another portrait, In Reverie (Not in Conger). Announced in May 1909 and subsequently illustrated (but not critiqued) in June,[10]In Reverie portrays a couple in Colonial garb seated in profile on a high backed settle, incongruously placed in an open doorway (rather than the more customary fireside). Of course this open doorway also serves the practical purpose of providing a ready source for the illumination that suffuses the couple with an atmospheric glow. Although In Reverie depicts what appears to be a man and a woman, in reality, both are women: Flora Chandler Weston’s nieces, Emily and Lillian Ellias, the daughters of Edward B. and Elizabeth Chandler Ellias.[11]
Precisely what appealed to the American Photography judges about these three portraits remains unknown, as none were critiqued in their respective magazines. However, we shouldn’t be surprised by Weston’s interest in Colonial inspired tableaux such as Priscilla and In Reverie. In actuality, they are apt reflections of the enthusiasm for Colonial Revivalism sweeping through architecture, interior design, decorative arts, fine arts, and gardens during the period. Inspired by the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876, Colonial Revivalism found considerable and widespread expression from the late 19th through the first quarter of the 20th century. As always, Weston was very much attuned to his times.
We now arrive at 1910, the final year of our review, which disappointingly ushered in nothing more prestigious than Honorable Mentions from the various periodicals evaluating his work.
American Photography awarded Honorable Mentions to A Summer Idyll (Not in Conger) in April 1910,[12] a portrait titled Eloise (Not in Conger) in July,[13] and Soldier Boy (Not in Conger) in November.[14] Regrettably, all three photographs remain unidentified as none are discussed, described or illustrated in their respective magazines.
As noted above, in May 1910 The Camera found enough favor with another Weston portrait of Helen Cole (certainly related to the one illustrated in the February 1909 issue of American Photography) to allot it an Honorable Mention in its “Home Portraiture Competition,” illustrate it in its May issue, and publish the following very mixed critique: “No 3 is awarded to E.H. Weston, Tropico, Cal. The scheme of lighting is novel and pretty well managed, but a little hard and contrasty. The posing is good, but the high light on the belt buckle in conjunction with the high lights on the hands and wrists is decidedly unpleasant. Much improvement is also needed in the management of the background.” With such faint praise, one wonders why The Camera even deemed this award worthy. No title is supplied for Weston’s portrait, the reproduction of which is accompanied by the following caption: “Honorable Mention / The Camera Competition / No. 132—Home Portraiture / Edward H. Weston / Tropico, Cal. / Film-pack Negative. R.R. Lens, full open. Exposure, 8 seconds; sunny day; north window. Enlarged Print on Royal Bromide.”[15]
The last contemporary periodical to take an interest in Weston’s work was Photo-Era which, in October 1910, awarded an Honorable Mention in the “Landscape with Figures” category of its “Monthly Competition” to In Vacation Time (Not in Conger).[16] This Kodak contest worthy image depicts two young photographers ambling along a path in Griffith Park in search of picturesque subject matter. In it we see Weston burdened with his cumbersome equipment and Helen Cole at ease with what is likely her much more portable Kodak.[17] The photograph is illustrated on page 193 and discussed favorably on page 206 by editor Wilfred A. French, as follows: “Mr. Weston’s picture, page 193, is very pleasing. The figures are well managed, and their relation to the landscape logical but not subservient. The burden on the young man’s shoulder is strongly accentuated, and becomes obtrusive. Data: Orthonon plate; Voigtlander & Son’s Collinear lens, at full aperture; exposure 3 seconds; September, 4 P.M.; bright light; pyro developer; print, Azo “A,” sulphide toned.”
The following month, a second Weston photograph, described only as a “marine,” received an Honorable Mention in the magazine’s November “Round Robin Guild Monthly Competitions.”[18] No description or illustration was supplied, which is particularly frustrating as this “marine” is the only non-portrait referred to in any of the photography magazines since Snow Drifts appeared in the June 1908 issue of Camera Craft.
The attention Weston received from photography magazines during this early period was due largely to his own initiative. Weston submitted work to these periodicals, but was certainly not well enough established to have the magazines solicit work from him. What makes photographs such as Spring, Snow Drifts, Priscilla, In Reverie, and Helen particularly interesting today is the fact that Weston created, selected and disseminated them as representative of his work—at least representative of what he thought would be deemed “artistic”at the time. These were the photographs for which he sought critical approbation. They were not the “bread and butter” portraits, topographical and documentary work he executed strictly for commercial purposes. Those photographs appeared in print as well, sometimes with and sometimes without credit, but in such mediums as newspapers, city directories, and promotional civic publications (topics for future Blog posts!). One example is this portrait of Mary Pearl Pottol, a finalist in a Los Angeles Times Scholarship Contest. Credited as “Photo by Weston, Tropico,” it appeared in the Los Angeles Daily Times on 3 September 1910.[19] Yet even this seemingly prosaic portrait holds our interest, for in it we can see, however coincidentally, the shadow of Weston’s great “heroic” heads to come.
NOTES
1 “Picture Criticism: E.H. Weston,” Camera and Dark-Room 9:4, April 1906, 132–133. [Illustration p. 133].
2 Ibid. The illustration of Spring is accompanied by the following caption: “Spring E.H. Weston.”
3 “Our Portfolio,” American Amateur Photographer 18:6, June 1906, 290. To date, no definitive identification of Rushes in Winter has been made or print of it located. It may be the photograph Snow Scene, Jackson Park, Chicago (Conger 1/1903) or, perhaps more likely, Snow Drifts, which depicts a landscape of rushes or bare shrub branches emerging from a snow covered foreground. See discussion of the June 1908 Camera Craft in the Blog above and in Note 7, below.
4 Weston arrived in California in late May 1906.
5 [Frank R. Fraprie], “Our Portfolio,” American Photography 2:3, March 1908, 166.
6 Edward Weston, [Real Photographic Post Card], Tropico, Cal. Tropico, California, dated 25 December and postmarked 26 December 1907. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) Another print—but not a postcard—of this photograph is in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum where it is mounted in “Album C,” and accessioned as 86.XA.714.67. In addition to the American Photography critique and the photo postcard, this same expansive view of Tropico has been found in two later publications which are outside the time frame of this post: the 1911–1912 Resident and Business Directory of Glendale, Tropico and Casa Verdugo (which boasts six Weston photographs and two different advertisements for his studio) and the November 1916 issue of American Globe Protective Financier (which illustrates a whopping twelve Weston photographs of Tropico).
7 [Edward Weston], Snow Drifts, Camera Craft 15:6, June 1908, 219. [Illustration only]. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) The caption that accompanies the illustration reads: “SNOW DRIFTS By EDWARD H. WESTON, TROPICO, CAL. / Second Prize, April Competition.”
8 “Editorial Note and Comment: Our Competition,” American Photography 2:8, August 1908, 461–462. [Illus. p. 461.] (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) Weston’s is the twentieth and final alphabetically listed name among the “Honorable mention” awards for the August Competition. The caption that accompanies the illustration of Priscilla (Not in Conger) reads: “Priscilla / Edward H. Weston / Honorable Mention—Monthly Competition.” The sitter has been variously identified as Flora Weston or May Weston Seaman. Amy Conger, in her Dissertation, identifies her as Weston’s sister, May while two prints of this photograph in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston are catalogued on the museum’s web site as “Aunt Flora Weston (at spinning wheel).”
9 “Our Competitions,” American Photography 3:2, February 1909, 91, 103. [Illus. p. 91]. The caption that accompanies the full page illustration of Helen (Not in Conger) on page 91 reads: “Helen / Edward H. Weston / Honorable Mention, Monthly Competition.”
10 Frank R. Fraprie, “Editorial Comment” American Photography 3:5, May 1909, 292, 294. [Ref. p. 292]. and [Edward Weston], “In Reverie,” American Photography 3:6 June 1909, 351. Although the “Monthly Competition” results were announced in May, In Reverie (Not in Conger) was not illustrated until June. The illustration is accompanied by the following caption: “In Reverie / Edward H. Weston / Third Prize, Monthly Competition (General).”
11 Beth Gates Warren, Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles, Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2011, p. 39. Warren identifies the two sitters as the nieces of Flora Chandler Weston. In Reverie is also included in an illustrated “Exhibition Checklist” for Edward Weston: Portrait of the Young Man as an Artist, a show prepared by Curatorial Assistance Traveling Exhibitions in 2017. The exhibition checklist describes the photograph as follows: “Emily and Lillian Ellias (Flora’s Nieces), Dressed for Play, Outside Weston Home,” 1909, gelatin silver print, Collection: Family Album, Chandler Album A048.”
12 “Editorial Comment: Our Monthly Competition,” American Photography 4:4, April 1910, 214–215. The reference to Weston, which appears on page 215 of the “Our Monthly Competition” column announcing Honorable Mentions, reads simply: “ ‘A Summer Idyll,’ Edward H. Weston.”
13 “Editorial Comment: Our Monthly Competition,” American Photography 4:7, July 1910, 416. Eloise (Not in Conger) was awarded Honorable Mention by American Photography in its July 1910 “Monthly Competition” and is noted but not illustrated in the “Our Monthly Competition” column of the magazine’s “Editorial Comment” section as follows: “ ‘Eloise,’ by Edward H. Weston.” The subject of this portrait is likely Eloise Seaman, Weston’s niece, the daughter of his sister, May and her husband John H. Seaman.
14 “Editorial Comment: Our Monthly Competition,” American Photography 4:11, November 1910, 658–659. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
15 “Home Portraiture Competition,” The Camera 14:5, May 1910, 192, 206. [Illus. p. 192] (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) Although untitled in The Camera, this is a portrait of Helen Cole (Not in Conger).
16 Wilfred A. French, “Our Illustrations: Monthly Competition” [“Honorable Mention—Landscape with Figures”], Photo-Era 25:4 (October 1910), 193, 198, 206. [Illus. p. 193] (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
17 It has been suggested, and is reasonable to accept, that Weston took this photograph as a submission to an actual Kodak contest. Alas, no evidence of this submission has come to light.
18 Elizabeth Flint Wade, “The Round Robin Guild Monthly Competitions: Awards—Marines,” Photo-Era 25:5, November 1910, 249. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
19 “Girded for the Closing Heat Tonight In ‘The Times’ Exciting Educational Race,” Los Angeles Daily Times, 3 September 1910, Part II, p. 7. This bust-length portrait of Mary Pearl Pottol (Not in Conger) appears within an article describing the finalists in a Los Angeles Times Scholarship Contest. The illustration is accompanied by the following caption: “Photo by Weston, Tropico / Miss Mary Pearl Pottol, who is said to have a score somewhere around the 200,000 mark and is looked upon as a possible taker of the capital prize—but ‘there are others.’ ” A different Weston portrait of Mary Pearl Pottol also appeared in two earlier Los Angeles Daily Times articles describing the Scholarship Contest.
—Letter from Edward Weston to Bea and Don Prendergast, 20 September 1944 [1]
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Edward Weston and Charis Wilson were true blue, dyed-in-the-fur cat aficionados. Fortunately, life on Wildcat Hill afforded the perfect breeding ground, both for Weston’s photographic exploration of feline form and the cats’ own instinctual behavior. As Weston commented to a journalist for The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal, “We both loved cats all our lives, but Wildcat Hill gave us our first opportunity to have them in wholesale quantities.”[2] Wholesale indeed. By some accounts that number varied over the years from as few as two to more than twenty.
The Wildcat Hill experiment proved fulfilling but problematic, posited as it was on the theory that allowing cats to interact largely on their own would give rise to a colony of naturally behaving kitties. In her “Introduction” to The Cats of Wildcat Hill, Charis Wilson wrote:
It all began in 1938 when we built our own house on the California coast five miles south of Carmel. We had had single cats before then, but we had always wanted to have several at one time—first, because we liked cats, and second, because we were interested in their behavior. In those days it was my contention that a single cat became too humanized from always associating with people; that observations of its habits and behavior would tell you more about the family it lived with than about the cat itself; that only a cat whose associates were other cats would behave in a naturally catty manner. / At last we had ample range to support quite a colony of cats—nearly two acres of land on a bluff above the coast highway. … If we visualized any limit to the project in the beginning, we probably thought of having eight or ten cats. When production once got under way, the census of our cat society rarely fell below twelve and frequently rose above twenty. It was not long before the flaw in my “cats should associate with other cats” argument, became apparent. We soon found that the cats themselves considered it unnatural—or at least highly undesirable—to have a lot of other cats around. Only our constant vigilance could keep the group from being broken up and dispersed. / … / Aside from maintaining the group, we found it necessary to regiment the cats to some extent, so that we too could continue to live on the premises. A reasonable standard of indoor conduct had to be enforced, and the methods for achieving this were perfected gradually as the tribe increased. … / …[3]
The Cats of Wildcat Hill, 1947 Inscribed by Edward, Dorothy, Cole and Chandler Weston (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
This extravagance of cats was not for the feint of heart. In addition to feeding, nursing, training, and tending to their needs, housing required a bit of creative maneuvering. One amusing architectural solution was the “Franklloydwright Addition,” a ramshackle amalgamation of boxes that successfully satisfied the cats’ homing instincts.[4]
Edward Weston, Keddsy in a F.L. Wright Addition, about 1944 or 1945 as illustrated in The Cats of Wildcat Hill
Nor did the colony appeal to everyone. After all, some people are cat fanciers, others most decidedly are not. Even Charis recognized this conflict, noting: “During these years we have had several hundred human visitors at Wildcat Hill, among them all ranks of cat-regarders, from cat-addicts to cat-haters—or, if you wish to be elegant, from ailurophiles to ailurophobes. A few of our guests became sneezy and red of eye, a few became so absorbed in watching the cats they forgot they had come to see us, a few paid the cats no attention whatever—although a dozen cats dispersed around a one-room house are not easy to overlook. …”[5] She also described this perplexing issue with candid aplomb in an article penned for the January 1941 issue of California Arts and Architecture (written in the third person under the pseudonym F.H. Halliday):
… Far from burying themselves in the country, the Westons appear to have set up house on a main travel artery. At least they have a heavier traffic in visitors and sitters than ever found them in Los Angeles. But in spite of that, they manage to go on living in highly uncivilized comfort—working hard, eating when they’re hungry, going to bed when they’re sleepy, enjoying their fantastic family of ten (10) cats. Visitors often shudder delicately and ask “But what do you do with them all?” (Any cat lover knows that’s a silly question, cats being the one animal you don’t have to do anything with.) But to the question “Why so many?” Charis responds by pointing out that if you only have one cat, or even two cats, they belong in the pet class; and, since they associate more with you than cats, they become, to a degree, humanized. But if you have enough of them to form a community (apparently ten is enough) then they develop in relation to each other and remain more catty. However, no one could call the Weston cats spoiled brats. Good manners are mandatory; yelling for food is sternly dealt with, climbing on tables forbidden; all members are taught to shake hands like ladies and gentlemen, and some of them even jump through hoops to show off for company.[6]
California Art and Architecture, January 1941 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Then there is this interesting, independent eye witness account of Wildcat Hill’s dynamic feline environment, as reported in the December 1945 issue of Minicam Photography:
We spent an exhilarating afternoon last summer with Charis and Edward Weston in their cozy home overlooking the broad Pacific near Carmel, California. We came at a time of feverish activity, for Weston was selecting some three hundred prints for his retrospective show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Feb. 12–March 31, 1946). He had set up an easel under the huge skylight to get a better look at a large selection of prints dating back to 1903. Whenever our eyes wandered away from a print, or him, we saw a cat; always a different one. We simply had to ask why. Yes, he was doing a little experimenting with cats, photographically, that is. How many? Twenty-three, as of that morning. ‘You cannot live with twenty-three cats and not learn something about them—they’re marvelous subjects. I waste more film with them than on landscapes.’ /…[7]
Minicam Photography, December 1945 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Friends and guests may have greeted the Weston cats with fascination, bemusement and occasional vexation, but when The Cats of Wildcat Hill appeared in 1947 it elicited a flurry of criticism, both pro and con. Prior to the book’s publication, Charis expressed hopes for its success in a letter of 5 May 1946 to Bea and Donald Prendergast: “I didn’t realize till I wrote the date there that today is my birthday! A few more weeks like the last few and I’ll be forgetting my name. The trouble being moving from place to place to place. Anyway I’m here [Los Angeles] for two months and that at the moment represents real security. / I’ve finished the cat book except for a final going over and it will be out in the fall with weston pretty kitty pix and horrid accounts of the behavior of the little dears which I do hope will sell like hot catkins, [typewritten:] there never having been a book like it. /…”[8]
Ultimately, some critics questioned both the wisdom of maintaining an extensive cat colony and the allure of an entire book recounting the triumphs and tribulations of its residents. As one reviewer observed: “Your interest in this book will depend on your interest in reading about other people’s cats—other people’s cats being comparable to other people’s children as topics for sustained discussion. All at once you’ve heard enough and want to go on to something else. …”[9]
Cat enthusiast or not, Weston’s photographs garnered approbation, even if the project itself sometimes failed to please. This review in the February 1948 issue of Minicam Photography covered all bases, from caveat to appreciation:
Few people are neutral on the subject of cats. Generally speaking, one either loves the feline creatures or detests them. Your reaction to this book, which is about nothing but cats, will, therefore, be largely dependent upon whether you are an ailurophile (cat lover) or ailurophobe (cat-hater), and the fact that Edward Weston has made the fine illustrations will probably not make much difference. / Since 1938, when the Westons built their house on the coast of California five miles south of Carmel, they have taken to the cat—not singly, but in droves. Although the population has been somewhat transient, twenty has been a good average number for the furry footpads gracing the Weston household. Charis Wilson, Weston’s ex-wife, with racy good humor and intelligent insight has written a ninety-page chronicle of their comings and goings through the years, and the result, combined with approximately twenty of her husband’s photographs of their pets, makes for mighty amusing and entertaining reading. / The reader whose interest is primarily photography rather than cats may be a trifle disappointed in the illustrations, if for no other reason than their scant number. Most of them are good, and a few are exceptional. Taken with Weston’s famous view camera, they are generally remarkable for their sparkling clarity, sharp rendering of texture, and freshness of approach, which have become to those familiar with his work, a kind of trademark of Weston’s fine photography.[10]
Life 6 September 1948 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Then there was this lively notice of The Cats of Wildcat Hill proffered by Life magazine in September 1948:
Edward Weston, the famous photographer, is best known for his sharply defined pictures of objects that stand still, like tree trunks, sand dunes and sea shells. Before he got interested in cats he used to feel that even a cow was too active for an ideal camera subject. But when he and his now-divorced wife, Charis Wilson, lived in a cabin in California more than 20 cats lived with them. On rainy days it was a madhouse. Cats had fights in the pantry and kittens in the bureau. Half-wild tomcats yowled outside at night. To the Westons each cat became a fascinating personality. They gave them fanciful names like Bodieson, Zohmah, Gourmy and Elmer Davis, and soon, in spite of himself, Weston started taking wonderful pictures of them. The pictures, some of which are shown here, are now published in a book, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, by Charis Wilson and Edward Weston (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, $3.75).[11]
Finally, if nothing else, Weston’s dedication received applause, as is emphasized in this 4 April 1948 Oakland Tribune review: “… The Weston photographs in this book must be the reward of long and canny patience. Only care, watchfulness and selectivity could bring a result so apparently unstudied, giving us the illusion that we have crossed the frontier and been given the freedom of the cats’ own country. Devotion—not maudlin sentiment, but a devotion that is part scientific, part esthetic, and part a temperamental affinity—is implicit in both photographs and text. / It might almost appear that this young couple built a house near Carmel for the express purpose of having ‘room enough to swing a cat’—or rather, any number of cats. …”[12]
Of course, Edward and Charis’s fascination with cats is hardly out of the ordinary, given the unbroken presence of felines in art, culture and religion that stretches back to ancient times. Nor is The Cats of Wildcat Hill a rare occurrence in the publishing world, although its memoir-like account of feline behavior remains distinctive. So it is not surprising that Weston’s cat photographs began gracing the pages of other publications soon after the book’s appearance. Three contemporary works stand out: Elodie Courter Osborn’s Texture and Pattern: Teaching Portfolio, a portfolio of forty prints published by the Museum of Modern Art in 1949[13]; Bryan Holme’s book Cats and Kittens, published in 1950; and the related Cats Engagement Calendar for 1954. In his “Foreword” to Cats and Kittens, Holme makes the following observation regarding Weston and the other contemporary photographers featured in the book:
Bryan Holme, Cats and Kittens, 1950 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
On the photographic side, the examples included are by contemporary photographers. The reason, of course, is that only in recent years has photography reached a very high level of sensibility through the skill of a number of men who realize to the full the camera’s potentialities. Edward Weston, for instance, whose photographs have had solo exhibitions in such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has been a pioneer for better photography and print making. Two excellent examples by him are shown in Plates LXVIII and LXIX. Other top ranking men in the field who have found cats an interesting subject are Martin Munkacsi (Plates I and XIII), John Rawlings (Plate CXV), Edward Quigley (Plates XIV, XLIV, XLV, LXXVI, CVI), Elizabeth Hibbs (Plates XXIII, CX), Nickolas Muray (Plate XCI), Werner Bischof (Plate XI), Fred G. Korth (Plate IV, VIII), and John Mills, Jr. (Plate CVII). Then there is Ylla, and also W. Suschitzky, two of the greatest animal photographers of the day. Both are well represented throughout the book, and so is Walter Chandoha, who has made cat photography a specialty. / …. / [p. 9:] … To produce real masterpieces like Plates I, LXVIII, LXIX—to give but three instances in this book—requires great sensitivity, a full understanding of the entire photographic process, also endless patience in developing and print making to achieve desired effects. It also, naturally, requires an understanding of composition, lighting, color values when reduced to tones of black and white, and a sure hand at exposing correctly and at the right moment. Dodging, judicious retouching, super-imposing, and other devices employed are all part of the print-making story. The degree to which most or all of these factors are skillfully worked out makes the difference between a good and an indifferent photograph. / …[14]
The exhaustive Cats and Kittens was followed up with a Cats Engagement Calendar for 1954, in which Franklin (Conger 1787/1945) serves as the companion of the week for 4–10 July 1954.[15]
Edward Weston, Franklin, 1945 as illustrated in Cats Engagement Calendar for 1954 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
So, why did Weston pour such attention into photographing cats in the early 1940s? His long-standing admiration for them was surely a factor, but much of the concentrated photographic focus likely stemmed from travel and security restrictions imposed during World War II, a period in which even Point Lobos was closed to the public for a time. Largely confined to his home, Weston photographed what was at hand.[16]
Additionally, both Edward and Charis were consumed by wartime responsibilities which left little time for extraneous travel and activities. As Weston wrote to his friends Mona and Felipe Texidor in 1945: “… We have been active in the war effort in ways suited to our life and location. I was air raid warden, Charis drove U.S. Mail. We were both in Air Craft Warning Service; Charis practically ran our local post, and I took a lonely night vigil (because I was lazy mentally, didn’t want to go to school and learn all planes!) We have had a large V[ictory] garden; peas, beans, corn, broccoli, rhubarb, potatoes, tomatoes, chard, asparagus, strawberries, beets, carrots, cauliflower, etc. etc. …[17] The true deciding factor, however, seems to have been Charis, who advocated convincingly for the project and its subsequent book.[18]
Of course, Weston’s fascination with cats—as pets if not artistic subjects—begins much earlier than the 1940s. How far back that interest goes—to childhood?—remains unplumbed, but the earliest reference that this author has identified stems from a Daybook entry on 15 June 1927. In it, Weston reports on receiving two new kittens as a gift from Flora: “… Yesterday, I tried again [to photograph shells]: result, movement! The exposure was 4 1/2 hours, so to repeat was no joy, with all the preoccupation of keeping quiet children and cats,—but I went ahead and await development. / Cats—yes—two orange kittens. Flora brought me: delightful little rascals, but worse than four boys for mischief. / …”[19]
Later that year, on 7 December, Weston mentions acquiring a “magnificent” cat named Pirracas: “I’ve also bought for almost nothing a fine bed spring,—the first real night comfort I’ve had for years,—a sofa, a red chest which Monna painted, and several shelves for books, and Oh, yes, a magnificent cat,—Pirracas. / …”[20] Evidently the magnificent Parracas sired at least one out of a litter of kittens with another Weston cat, the fecund Tonchi.
Clearly, Weston’s delight in feline antics was already in full swing and this enthusiastic Daybook report from 1 June 1928 could easily describe Wildcat Hill in June 1948:
Tonchi’s four kittens are a continuous vaudeville,—comedy, acrobatics and dancing! They furnish free entertainment, more comical, more amazing than any “Orpheum” act. Tonchi seems burdened and bored with maternity: but Pirracas who is papa to at least one of them watches their antics, fascinated. Suddenly, as though the kittens had suggested mice, he pounces upon one,—then what a squealing and skedaddling follows to escape the monster’s jaws. / Prince Pirracas I call him, or Your Satanic Majesty, for in the feline world he must be titled. His aloof elegance, his diabolic moods, his cryptic movements denote Black Magic, suggest allegiance with hobgoblins. / …[21]
Weston’s six cats re-appear as foils to a crowded (and awkward) social gathering in a subsequent Daybook entry of 4 June 1928:
A mess of a party—and my fault. Nahui Olin and Santayo were coming out—it seems I could no longer avoid them! So to prevent boredom I asked Kathleen, which meant inviting her sister for “chaperon”—since K. is in bad with her family—which in turn meant inviting Flora. After all I thought, Flora has not been here to a party since my return,—it may please her. / Then I phoned Schindler to come: he has asked me many times to meet Nahui. Neutra answered the phone, that meant inviting him and his wife,—but I was not sorry for I like them both. / Well when Neutra arrived who should be with him but Sadakichi Hartmann whom I had not seen for a good eight years,—not since I had told him to stay away following an unpleasant episode with Margrethe, which served as a good excuse for I was disgusted enough with his grafting… / Neil and Cole and the six cats squeezed in to add spice. I began to move in circles. … / Flora thanked me on parting. I really think she enjoyed the evening.[22]
These may be among the earliest written references to cats, but what of Weston’s history of actually photographing them? One image, in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, may be the earliest example. It depicts a tabby poised mid-meow in a cat door cut into an adobe wall. Although the photograph itself is undated, it is located in a Weston family album compiled in Tropico between 1908–1914.[23]
Edward Weston, Poe-esque, 1921, as illustrated in the Los Angeles Record, 23 December 1921
In 1921, another cat—of sorts—makes its appearance in a series of portraits of Ricardo Gómez Robelo. Generally titled Poe-Esque, each variation depicts Robelo set against a striking batik created by Robo de Richey[24] titled “The Witch.” Its primary element is a black cat, seen in profile, back arched while raising and licking its right paw.
More black cats appear in an unpublished photograph from 1932. In it, two rather unkempt examples face off in semi-wary fashion.[25]
A third pre-The Cats of Wildcat Hill print, Cat and Cat Tails from about 1940, appeared in the January 1941 issue of California Arts and Architecture.[26] It depicts Gourmy stretched out on a woven mat, a composition eerily reminiscent of Weston’s Mexican nude of Tina on the Azotea from 1924.
Edward Weston. Cat and Cat Tails, about 1940 as reproduced in California Arts and Architecture, January 1941 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Even when Weston wasn’t photographing cats, he was reporting on the menagerie to his friends in letters that make for informative and entertaining reading. Of particular interest is this 1 June 1939 missive to fellow photographer Fred Korth. In it, Weston appreciatively agrees to exchange one of his “Dune” photographs for one of Korth’s cat images: “Dear Mr. Korth — / You win— / We could not resist the cats you do, — by far the best we have ever seen— “We” includes cat-lover Charis (I am one to [sic]). Our cats (7) all shake hands before eating. / Actually your desire to have the “Dune” broke down my resistance, even before the cats (or cat) arrived. But my first letter does give my real reason for not exchanging. So please don’t spread the news that I exchanged. Someday you may decide to quit swapping work and remember me! / I would like to limit the trade to 1 print and—to be fair—for the club. / Cordially, Edward Weston. / P.S. I hope the print you chose is in good condition; the group as a whole was travel-worn. Glass covers a multitude of sins— E.W.”[27]
Letter from Edward Weston to Fred Korth, 1 June 1939 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
Weston’s disarming humor shines through in a 1944 letter to Bea and Donald Prendergast where the amusing euphemism “pussygraphs” stands out in an account of wartime activities at Weston’s “old-Carmely-home.” The letter reads:
Wildcat Hill / Bulletin from Weston Front: / A letter from Beandon! [Bea and Don] Glory be — / I have done some good Pussygraphs; not easy with 8 x 10! I make more than 1 neg. to get 1. / Most of my time writing to armed forces. / Cole, Navy—Chicago. / Chan, “ [Navy]—S. Diego. / Brett, Army — N.Y. / Neil, Army Transport Service (Civilian). / Strange that Neil will be first to heave for the “front.” He ships out tomorrow in a 90 ft Tug for (guess) the S. Pacific. / Brett is at last having time of his life going to Photo School in Astoria, living in N.Y. city, receptions, photographing N.Y. / [p. 2:] Jean read your letter before leaving for S.F. After a summer of nothing-but-dripping-fog the sun-shines-bright-on-my-old-Carmely-home. / I have finished Huntington Library Weston collection. / Refused to be rushed on a big 300 print Weston retro. 1902-1945, M. of M. A. so don’t know what will happen. “They” wanted it for March instead of Autumn. / Charis on fire-watch. We do a lot of electioneering—she, house to house & phone to phone. Register, Register, Register. / Your comment on rush job for / [p. 3:] Carnegie very sad. You painted so happily in turgid Tucson. Too many nice people around you? / Here are some more scrappies – – – / And here are large abrazos y besos [two drawn hearts] Eddie / P.S. Last week we had 12 cats / — “ “ [week we] have 23 “ [cats] / —and next “ “ [week we] will have ??? / (Keddsie and Kelly / still expecting).[28]
Letter from Edward Weston to Bea and Donald Prendergast, 20 September 1944 (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Did Edward and Charis ever consider their multitude of cats and kittens burdensome? Yes, indeed. Even the most ardent of ailurophiles have their limits. Over the years the Westons resorted to euthanizing kittens and seriously ill cats as well as soliciting new homes for some members of the colony. In fact, Weston began placing advertisements for his “pussies” in the The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal as early as 1948—a yearly or twice yearly tradition generally timed with the arrival of a fresh litter of kittens—that I have been able to track up through 1954. The first such notice, on 21 May 1948, reads: “FOR SALE: Nine pretty pussies, a penny apiece. To pedigreed people only. Phone Carmel 1317-W for appointment. Edward Weston, State Highway No. 1, at Wild Cat Creek Bridge.”[29]
Advertisement in the Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal, 21 May 1948
By the 1950s, the need to winnow out the tribe became more pressing as Edward’s health continued to deteriorate. On 11 August 1950, he placed the following advertisement in The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal: “1 CENT SALE. Buy one kitten at the usual price of 1 cent and get another absolutely free. Better hurry, only three left. Edward Weston, Phone 7-6886, Wild Cat Creek Bridge and Highway 1.”[30]
Evidently The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal found this particular advertisement newsworthy, for it published the following response one week later:
Photographer Edward Weston, who has cats the way other people have ants, needs help. / In the past, whenever his furry tribe threatened to edge him out of his studio at Wildcat Creek, he has put some of them up for sale. He has always refused to give them away—for every departing kitten he has solemnly demanded 1 cent. Usually this thinned things out a bit and everybody was happy. / This transaction has been going on for years, until nearly every cat on the Peninsula can claim some Weston blood. / Last week they began to creep up on him again (about 11, he estimated). Taking a hint from modern merchandising methods, he offered something special in his annual Pine Cone advertisement: two for the price of one. / ‘Buy one kitten at the usual price of 1 cent and get another absolutely free,’ he urged. ‘Better hurry, only three left.’ / ‘Very odd,’ he told The Pine Cone this week, ‘So far I haven’t sold one. Do you suppose Carmel has reached a saturation point?’ / With eight adults and three kittens on hand (or on paw), things looked black indeed. The Weston studio began to look like a Thurber cartoon, with cats clogging every doorway. / Wednesday afternoon the blow fell—five more were born. / The only bright side of the picture is that now they’ll come out even—eight kittens at two for one cent. A lot of people were wondering what he was going to do with that odd one.[31]
Paul Outerbridge. Portrait of Edward Weston, ca. 1950 as reproduced in Family Circle, February 1951. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
Surprisingly, even Paul Outerbridge commented on Weston’s kitty sales in an article extolling the Monterey Peninsula that he wrote and illustrated for Family Circle magazine. The reference to Weston, in a section sub-titled “An Inspiration to Artists,” reads: “… The photographer Edward Weston, famous for the purity of his photographs of this coast line, lives in Carmel Highlands, about four miles below Carmel proper, on the side of the canyon of Wildcat Creek. Collecting stray kittens is his hobby, and once a year he advertises for buyers in a Carmel newspaper. He usually sells these kittens for 1¢ each; last year he offered a bargain—one for a penny and an extra one absolutely free with each purchase.”[32]
Weston’s health may have been diminishing, but his sense of humor certainly remained strong, as evidenced by these two advertisements from 1951 and 1952:
20 April 1951: “FOR SALE—11 kittens at pre-inflation prices (1c each) They are 49% cuter, 22% smarter, 67% prettier (than what?) Ph. E.W. Highway 1, at Wild Cat Creek bridge.”[33]
8 August 1952: “SENSATIONAL PRE-INVENTORY SALE: Nothing like it ever dreamed of before. While they last, 9 kittens at less than 1c each. Phone 7-6886 for an appointment. Edward Weston, Carmel Highlands.”[34]
Have you ever wondered what became of the Wildcat Hill cat tribe after Weston’s death? An article in the Monterey Peninsula Herald suggests an answer that also serves as a fitting coda for this essay.
The late camera artist Edward Weston used to keep flocks of cats around his home at Wildcat Hill in Carmel Highlands. Although mostly of the tame varieties, they were known as the cats of Wildcat Hill. When Weston died recently, just two of the cats were still around. In his will, he left instructions that they should be given good homes, if possible. Otherwise, they should be taken to a veterinarian and put painlessly to sleep. / Weston’s son Neil is still trying to find homes for the cats, both females and both spayed. One is a tabby which Weston gave to the late Hazel Watrous, co-founder of the Bach Festival, when it was a kitten, and inherited back when she died. The other is a gorgeous pale blonde. Both are quite un-wild and affectionate. / If you’d like to give a home to a cat with excellent references, call Neil Weston. MA 4-4664.[35]
Monterey Peninsula Herald, 3 February 1958 (Collection of the Monterey Public Library)
Notes
1 Letter from Edward Weston to Bea and Donald Prendergast, postmarked 20 September 1944; 2 sheets/3 pages; als in ink. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
2 Roz, “Getting Around the Peninsula: The Cats on Wildcat Hill…” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 33:7 (14 February 1947): 1/Cover. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
3 Charis Wilson and Edward Weston, The Cats of Wildcat Hill, New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, Inc., 1947, “Introduction,” pp. 1–2. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
4 Ibid., p. 2. In her Introduction to The Cats of Wildcat Hill, Charis wrote: “When the group was large, the matter of housing became increasingly important. From the cardboard cartons we used singly as nurseries, we developed what was known in the family as the Franklloydwright Addition: cartons and boxes set up in series, at angles, in stories. These proved immensely popular with the cats, and reconciled them to remaining outdoors even on foggy and windy days, which is what days often are in this latitude.”
5 Ibid., p. 2.
6 Charis Wilson [F.H. Halliday], “Edward Weston,” California Arts and Architecture 58:1, January 1941, Cover, 11, 16–17, 34–35. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
7 [Hoxie, George R., possibly], “A Swing Around the Country with Edward Weston,” Minicam Photography 9:4, December 1945, 75–83. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) This unattributed article, possibly written by Minicam Editorial Associate George R. Hoxie, is comprised of an introduction (partially quoted above) followed by fourteen illustrations across eight pages. There are no cat photographs among them.
8 Letter from Charis Wilson to Bea and Donald Prendergast, dated 5 May 1946; 2 sheets/2 pp. tl. Envelope postmarked: “LOS ANGELES CALIF. / MAY 6 / 430 PM / 1946.” (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) This letter was clearly written after Charis had left Weston and Wildcat Hill. Her return address reads: “c/o Shea, 6549 Commodore Sloat Dr. / Los Angeles 36, Calif.”
9 Frederick Yeiser, “Book Reviews: Two Books About Cats,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, 6 December 1947, 6B. Yeiser’s criticism extends to the advisability of rearing cats in the Wildcat Hill; his review reads:
THE CATS OF WILDCAT HILL. By Charis Wilson and Edward Weston. Duell, Sloan and Pearce. $3.75. / Your interest in this book will depend on your interest in reading about other people’s cats—other people’s cats being comparable to other people’s children as topics for sustained discussion. All at once you’ve heard enough and want to go on to something else. / Here instead of assisting at the doings of an ordinary family of cats, you are let in on the history and accomplishments (mostly amatory) of several generations of them. It’s a great deal like reading about such families as the Jukes and the Kallikaks. And the same lessons may be learned. / The Wilson and Weston cat colony in California started quite naturally with one stray unit, presumably pregnant. There were enough yearning sires in the semi-wild group on the hillside to perpetuate the family. In no time at all there were more cats than were needed. / Some of the females were allowed to have two and even three litters a year, which is too many even for a cat. Now it may strike the author as extremely amusing to let cats go on breeding and breeding and bring up their young around her house and she writes in an extremely entertaining manner about them and their habits, but I wonder if cats are merely copy. It seems to me that it’s not quite cricket to make a home for a bunch of cats and then one fine day close the house and go off for a period of 10 months, as the author says she and her husband did (unless I misunderstand her), thus leaving them stranded. / Also, I do not go along with her claim that it is impossible to isolate a female cat that is in season. In fact, I should dispute it. The job requires both patience and careful surveillance, but can be done. Except for these fundamental differences on policy, I found much in ‘The Cats of Wildcat Hill’ to divert me, notably Edward Weston’s engaging photographs. / …
Charis Wilson notes Yeiser’s review in her book, Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston (Charis Wilson and Wendy Madar, New York: North Point Press/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, p. 331). (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
10 “Book Reviews: The Cats of Wildcat Hill,” Minicam Photography 11:6, February 1948, 128. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
11 “Speaking of Pictures…Famous Photographer Tries His Hand at Cats,” Life 25:10, 6 September 1948, 10–12. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
12 Nancy Barr Mavity, “Books, Art, Music: Cats Made a Boob of Shakespeare, Too,” Oakland Tribune, 4 April 1948, C-5.
13 Elodie Courter Osborn, Texture and Pattern: Teaching Portfolio Number Two, New York: Museum of Modern Art, [1949]. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) The following four Weston photographs are included in Texture and Pattern: Franklin (Conger 1788/1945), Toadstool (Conger 645/1931), Church at Hornitos (Conger 1505/1940), and Tide Pool (Conger 1350/1938). A Museum of Modern Art Press Release, dated 24 January 1949, describes this Portfolio as follows:
Containing 40 richly printed plates, 11 x 14 inches, in addition to explanatory text, the first of a series of teaching portfolios has just been published by the Museum of Modern Art to be sold at $7.50 per copy. Designed as loose sheets in a slipcase, these portfolios are intended primarily for classroom use by teachers and students in the fine and applied arts. In addition however they will provide a handsome addition to any library. / Prepared by the Circulating Exhibitions Department, four of the series are planned for publication this winter: Modern Sculpture, Texture and Pattern, a portfolio based on the exhibition Timeless Aspects of Modern Art just shown at the Museum and one on industrial design. … / Texture and Pattern, to be issued in the near future, will contain 3 pages of text dealing with the wide variety of patterns and textures and their appeal to the painter, the sculptor, the photographer, the architect. The 40 plates illustrate textures and patterns to be found everywhere around us, such as the texture of a cat’s fur, metal pots, stones, wood and water; the patterns of bridge cables, zebras, stars, lighted windows. These are illustrated in the work of such outstanding photo- [p. 2:] graphers as Edward Weston, Berenice Abbott, Herbert Matter, Barbara Morgan Andreas Feininger; in paintings by Van Gogh, Dali, Klee, Miro, and in sculpture by Arp and Giacometti. / …
14 Bryan Holme, ed., Cats and Kittens, New York and London: The Studio Publications Inc. in Association with Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1950. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) Two Weston photographs included in The Cats of Wildcat Hill are illustrated in Cats and Kittens; they are: Jasmine and Marco Polo (Conger 1736/1944) and Franklin (Conger 1788/1945).
15 Cats Engagement Calendar: Your Day-To-Day Engagements for 1954, New York: The Studio Publications Inc. in Association with Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1953. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) The Weston photograph illustrated in the Cats Engagement Calendar is Franklin.
16 Charis Wilson and Wendy Madar, Through Another Lens My Years with Edward Weston, New York: North Point Press, 1998, p. 329. As Charis noted in her memoir, “Most of the notes and photographs for the book [The Cats of Wildcat Hill] were made between 1943 and 1945. Maybe because he spent so much time at home during this period, Edward became very involved with the cats and included news of their doings in letters to cat-loving friends.”
17 Letter from Edward Weston to Mona and Felipe Texidor, [1945]; 3 sheets/6 pp.; als in ink. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
18 Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona, 1992, p. 40. Conger writes: “Starting in January 1944 he saved eighty-two negatives of cats that he took that year and another fifty-seven in 1945. There were none from 1943 or from 1946. / The project was Charis’s idea; she wanted to write a book about cats. She was interested in observing how cats would behave when they lived in an environment with other cats, as opposed to people, although, of course, they never allowed the cats to do this. / Edward wrote his sister May about the new project: “Am all set to start a new epoch in my photo-life—emphasis on cats—also Charis will start writing about cats—our cats—should be a best seller. No fancy cats allowed, just plain ‘alley cats.’ 246 Edward told Minor White, “I started photographing cats because Charis goosed me on; I certainly didn’t use them in any symbolic way.”
19 Edward Weston, The Daybooks of Edward Weston, Vol. 2, California, ed. Nancy Newhall, Millerton, New York: An Aperture Book, 1973, 28.
20 Ibid., p. 41. Conger notes that, upon his return from Mexico, Weston “… set up in his old studio again on Brand Boulevard in Glendale. He acquired at least four cats by the end of the year and definitively clarified his separation from his wife Flora, for those who had any doubts…” See: Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, 19.
21 Ibid., p. 59.
22 Ibid., p. 60.
23 This photograph, in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, is catalogued simply as: “[Cat standing in cat door], n.d.” Measuring 15.6 × 11.2 cm (6 1/8 × 4 7/16 in.), it appears in Album “C” of the Getty’s Weston collection which they annotate as “Rincon Homestead Album: Album “C”, a mixed collection of views, snapshots, interiors, etc., mostly at Tropico, California, a family album of Edward and Flora Weston], American, about 1908–1914.”
24 Christie’s, Photographs, New York, Thursday, April 29, 1999, Sale #HENRY-9150, Lot 150. The notes for Lot 150, Poe-esque (Portrait of Ricardo Gómez Robelo with “The Witch”) read: “… Richey and Modotti lived the life of artists in a garret, seemingly given to an existence of bohemian elegance when in fact they were struggling financially and living with Richey’s family (op. cit., Lowe, Tina Modotti Photographs, pp. 15-18). It was through Richey that Modotti, in 1920, met Ricardo Gómez Robelo, the subject of the portrait offered here, posed in front of a batik by Richey. …”
25 Sotheby’s, Photographs, New York, Monday, November 2, 1987; Sale #5627-MACGUFFIN, Lot #415. Sotheby’s describes this photograph as “mounted, signed and dated by the photographer in pencil on the mount, 1932; 3 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches.”
26 Charis Wilson [F.H. Halliday], “Edward Weston,” California Arts and Architecture 58:1, January 1941, Cover, 11, 16–17, 34–35. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
27 Letter from Edward Weston to Fred Korth, dated 1 June 1939; 2 sheets/1 1/2 pages; als in pencil. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.) Weston followed up with Korth again in a postcard dated 10 June: “Dear Mr. Korth—The Cat came—a beautiful example of real photography. Charis claims it for her room. / We thank you— / Yrs / Edward Weston” Edward Weston to Fred Korth, postmarked “Jun 10 8:30 PM 1939”; Postcard; als in pencil. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
28 Letter from Edward Weston to Bea and Donald Prendergast, 20 September 1944; 2 sheets/3 pp.; als in ink. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
29 [Advertisement] Edward Weston, “Miscellaneous: For Sale: Nine pretty pussies, a penny apiece. …,” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 34:21, 21 May 1948, 19. The identical advertisement also appeared in the 4 June 1948 issue of The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal.
30 [Advertisement] Edward Weston, “Miscellaneous: 1 Cent Sale. Buy one kitten at the usual price of 1 cent and get another absolutely free…,” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 36:32, 11 August 1950, 15. This advertisement ran in every subsequent issue of The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal through 22 December 1950.
31 “Opportunity! Two Weston Cats For The Price Of One,” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 36:33, 18 August 1950, 1/cover.
32 Paul Outerbridge, “A Place Apart,” Family Circle 38:2, February 1951, 26-29, 82-86. Ironically, the cover of this issue is illustrated with a color photograph by Ted Koepper depicting four Siamese cat kittens in a basket. (Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.)
33 [Advertisement] Edward Weston, “Miscellaneous: FOR SALE—11 kittens at pre-inflation prices (1c each)…,” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 37:16, 20 April 1951, 18.
34 [Advertisement] Edward Weston, “Miscellaneous: Sensational Pre-Inventory Sale…,” The Carmel Pine Cone-Cymbal 38:32, 8 August 1952, 12.
35 Prof. Toro, “Peninsula Parade: Un-wild Cats,” Monterey Peninsula Herald, 3 February 1958, Sec. 2, p. 13. (Collection of the Monterey Public Library)
“But a search for new and real Form is one of the motive forces in Edward Weston’s work.” —Lawrence Bass-Becking [1]
Edward Weston’s Pepper No. 30 looms justifiably large in the pantheon of iconic Modernist photography. Even today, over ninety years after it was first photographed, this image remains startlingly fresh, visceral and immediate.
As is evident from the title, this was hardly the first pepper Weston photographed. Taken in August 1930, Pepper No. 30 reflects a progression in Weston’s approach to still life that began in earnest during his Mexican sojourn. There, cultural artifacts, juguetes, chayotes, gourds, ceramic wares, and even architectural elements were assembled and captured with a revealing eye for composition.
Sombrero de petate y huaraches de cuero. México, D.F. as illustrated in Justino Fernandez, El Arte Moderno en México: Breve Historia Siglos XIX y XX. Mexico City, 1937. Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
It was Weston’s return to Glendale in 1927 and the ensuing series of shell and vegetable images that sparked a true breakthrough. His initial foray into peppers came in August of that year when, inspired by a subject’s “convolutions,” he photographed it balanced atop a milk bottle.[2] Evidently Weston was pleased by the composition, even if some of his friends were not. In his Daybook entry for 6 January 1928, Weston wrote: “Have also mounted my pepper and milk-bottle, which Henry [Henrietta Shore] and Ramiel [McGehee] do not care for, but Peter [Krasnow] and I like immensely. I say, as I have often said, no matter how important the person who comments on one’s work, listen with interest and respect, then go ahead with one’s own opinion. I say this even to a beginner. Mistakes must be self-realized!”[3] Notably, it was an actual sculptor, Peter Krasnow, who seems to have best appreciated the strong sculptural nature of Weston’s first pepper.
Cover and introductory page to An Exposition of the Decorative Arts of Today Presented By Bullock’s, exhibition catalogue, December 1928. Collection of UC Santa Barbara Art Museum, Art & Design Collection.
Weston certainly approved of the composition because an unidentified “Pepper,” possibly this same 1927 pepper atop a bottle, was included in Edward Weston—Brett Weston Photographs, a major exhibition at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art in October–November 1927[4] and one titled “Pepper and Bottle,” appeared in An Exposition of the Decorative and Fine Arts of Today at Bullock’s Department Store in December 1928.[5] Of the 102 photographs in the 1927 show and the fifteen photographs at Bullock’s, only one pepper made it into each.
In January 1929, Weston also shared his “Pepper and Bottle” with a group of friends gathered in Carmel to celebrate the birthday of photographer Roger Sturtevant, an event reported in The Carmelite as follows:
Roger Sturtevant’s birthday party last Saturday night proved two things,—first, the vitality of young Bohemia in Carmel; and the second, that rivalry by two artists in the same field can be superceded [sic] by mutual respect. / … / Edward Weston had brought with him by request a portfolio of his photographic work. / Roger Sturtevant makes a work of art of a group of fern-buds and a piece of broken glass. Johan Hagemeyer takes a bit of machinery and gives it majesty. Edward Weston puts a green bell pepper upon a milk bottle, or takes a part of a human torso. Looking at these photographs is re-discovering the world about us. Edward Weston’s work makes those who see it aware of beauty constantly before the eye, yet never before perceived.”[6]
Weston had only recently moved to Carmel (early in January 1929), but once established in Johan Hagemeyer’s former studio,[7] he began diligently investigating the aesthetic possibilities of peppers. In August 1929, The Carmelite reported:
Pepper 16P as illustrated in Touring Topics June 1930, Rotogravure Section. Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
Do not disturb Edward Weston too suddenly in his studio these days. / He is working upon peppers. / Green peppers. / For an hour at a time he alternates between his camera under the black hood, and from his subject, one green glossy fruit. Emerging and squinting. Returning and peering. It is earnest business. / Two negatives have already become prints. There is a strange marvel in them. The print is no mere representation. It is highly selective interpretation. / For hours and days that one pepper has posed. Ramiel MacGeehee [sic] says that all shopping these days for his great friend must be done with a photographic eye. First it is the artist’s model, and only at last becomes a salad. Catastrophes and griefs have occurred because visitors have come along and eaten the still life. / Edward Weston knows, and in his work shows, that for richness and mystery, the pepper is subject matter equal to the poet.[8]
Weston experimented with a variety of staging arrangements in an effort to achieve optimum stability and lighting. From a pepper balanced atop a milk bottle he proceeded to photograph peppers placed on stone, what appears to be a bone,[9] nestled in a ceramic dish and/or placed against a burlap, muslin or white cardboard backdrop.
Pepper 7P as illustrated in Transition: An International Quarterly for Creative Experiment [Paris, France] June 1930. Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
Weston was not just photographing peppers in 1929, he was exhibiting them. Regarding his August to September show at San Francisco’s Courvoisier Little Gallery, Aline Kistler noted in her enthusiastic San Francisco Chronicle review: “… Each of Weston’s prints is very evidently a fresh solution to an individual problem of beauty. Even when the subject is practically the same, as in the two red pepper studies, one feels that each has been individually conceived and is not in any way an echo of the one that went before. …”[10]
In all, Weston exhibited one unidentified pepper in 1927 (in Edward Weston–Brett Weston Photographs at the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art); one pepper in 1928 (Pepper and Bottle at Bullock’s Department Store); and one or two unidentified peppers in each of four shows during 1929. The 1930s, however, ushered in a dramatic increase: forty shows between 1930 and 1939!
Which brings us back to Pepper No. 30. Of the forty exhibitions noted above, twenty (including original venues and their traveling components) contained No. 30.
Weston’s enthusiasm for the seemingly limitless possibilities of these “convoluted” vegetables waned not one whit in 1930. On 19 July, he wrote: “… And I have worked with peppers again, surprising myself! Sonya brought several home, and I could not resist, though I thought to have finished with peppers. But peppers never repeat themselves: shells, bananas, melons, so many forms, are not inclined to experiment,—not so the pepper, always excitingly individual.…”[11] His output was prolific. In fact, according to Conger, on four days in August alone, Weston “…took at least thirty different negatives of peppers…”[12]
Alas, Weston’s vision was constantly challenged by the vicissitudes of long exposures spoiled by unexpected movement and changing light. On 1 August 1930, he opined:
The glorious new pepper Sonya brought me has kept me keyed up all week and caused me to expose eight negatives: —I’m not satisfied yet! These eight were all from the same viewpoint: rare for me to go through this. I started out with an underexposure—by the time I had developed the light had failed, and though I tripled my time again I undertimed! Again I tried, desperately determined to get it because I could ill afford the time. Giving an exposure of 50 minutes at 5:00 I timed correctly, but during the exposure the fire siren shrieked, and promptly the fire truck roared by followed by every car in town: the old porch trembles, my wobbly old camera wobbled, the pepper shimmied, and I developed a moved negative. Next morning I went at it again: interruptions came, afternoon came, light weak, prolonged exposures necessary,—result, one negative possible, but possible also to improve upon it. / I tried the light from the opposite side in the next morning light,—brilliant sun through muslin. Better! A reason for my failures. Three negatives made, on a new angle so different as to be another pepper. And more failures, this time sheer thoughtlessness: a background of picture backing was placed too close and came into focus when stopped down which I could not see but should have realized, the corrugations plainly show and spoil the feeling. …[13]
What we see in Pepper No. 30 is the culmination of Weston’s experiments. Here, the problems of motion and lighting are finally resolved by nestling the subject in a tin funnel. Weston recorded this breakthrough on 3 August:
Sonya, as Ramiel did last year, keeps tempting me with new peppers! Two more have been added to my collection. While experimenting with one of these, which was so small that I used my 21 cm. Zeiss to fill the 8×10 size, I tried putting it in a tin funnel for background. It was a bright idea, a perfect relief for the pepper and adding reflected light to important contours. I still had the pepper which caused me a week’s work, I had decided I could go no further with it, yet something kept me from taking it to the kitchen, the end of all good peppers. I placed it in the funnel, focused with the Zeiss, and, knowing just the viewpoint, recognizing a perfect light, made an exposure of six minutes, with but a few moments preliminary work,—the real preliminary was done in hours passed. I have a great negative,—by far the best![14]
Whether or not Pepper No. 30 is the negative Weston refers to, it genuinely does rank among his “best,” due in large part to the inspired use of the funnel. The former distractions of base and background are all but eliminated: no more competing horizontal supporting surfaces, glazed oval dishes, stone bases, or fabric backdrops. All emphasis is on the subject itself. Pepper No. 30 stands in near isolation, its muscular curves glowing evocatively from light washing down from above and reflecting up and around off the subtly embracing funnel. Weston has effectively sculpted this pepper with light, intensifying the photograph’s impact through a masterful combination of clean-lined form, emphatic contrast, and all but tangible texture. Weston clearly liked Pepper No. 30: according to his print log, he created twenty-five examples of it prior to 1936. [15]
No other Weston pepper was as popularly received as No. 30. From 1930 through 1958 (the year of Weston’s death), it was illustrated in nineteen publications from locations as diverse as California, New York, Massachusetts, England, France, Switzerland, and Italy. Its inaugural appearance occurred in the November 1930 issue of California Arts & Architecture. Here, critic (pianist and composer) José Rodriguez wrote:
… Needless to say that whoever is avant-garde in modern esthetic thought or action, has at one time or another found himself talking to Edward Weston and looking with wonder at his pictures. / Weston is crazy about photography in the same sense that Hokusai was crazy about drawing. There is, in fact, a strong affinity between these two artists—born in different centuries of different races. To both the physical thing is immensely significant. Superficially, this would make them both stark realists, but the second thought follows irresistibly that this very preoccupation with shape as a fundamental definition makes them both out-and-out mystics. … Let us take as an example, the series of pictures that Weston is making of the green pepper—that fragrant, spicy, bloated, shiny, juicy, grotesquely rounded half-fruit half-allspice so common in California. / Now, a pepper is many things to many people. It is a singularly polymorphous vegetable and its character is legion. To Weston, the pepper is a mysterious receptacle for many plastic truths. / At first, we are apt to believe that Weston has merely attempted to make suggestive pictures of the peppers. They suggest bronze statuettes. They give impressions of human organic forms; sometimes they are fairly accurate sculptural forms of groups of people in all possible positions and contortions. / We ask ourselves: Is Weston merely trying to catch the shapes of other things in one thing? Is he repeating the school-boy trick of photographing clouds because they look like bearded old men? / Let us look again at a couple of prints. Let us forget their uncanny mastery of black and white, the luscious texture of the print, the crisp delight of the little flashing lights which play in and out of the utter black voids. Let us consider only the outlook of Weston as this fine print tells it to us. / No, Weston is not interested in making green peppers look like the Laocoon group. He doesn’t give a damn, in fact, if he can make a pepper look like the Nike of Samothrace. What he does give a considerable damn about is to show, by means of a black and white print, that the green pepper is a thing that moves and lives, that has fragrance and richness. …[16]
Pepper 30P as illustrated in California Arts & Architecture November 1930, p. 37. Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
Weston greatly appreciated Rodriguez’s perceptive remarks, quoting him in his 1931 promotional brochure and noting in his Datebook:
José Rodriguez in an article for California Arts & Architecture, has started from a basis seldom touched upon—and it is the real base of my work, the very inner core: /…/ Then he goes on to make a valuable explanation to the public who are always finding symbolic meanings, literal association of forms, ideas, comparing a pepper to a madonna and child, or finding the face of Lincoln in a tree! He kills that idea. I never see these associated forms when I work, only parts of life as symbols of all life. After, when someone with literal mind points them out, the print is sullied thereby![17]
An interesting testament to Pepper No. 30’s universal appeal may be found in its final 1958 publication: the September issue of the Italian periodical, Fotografia: Rivista Mensile D’Arte e Tecnica Fotografica [Vicenza, Italy]. Here, its accompanying caption astutely sums up Weston’s artistic intent: “Weston cerca nella sintesi della realtà l’espressione pura, la metafisica astrazione dalla caotica apparenza reale…” [18] [Weston seeks in the synthesis of reality the pure expression, the metaphysical abstraction from the chaotic real appearance…” [Per Google Translate.]
Pepper No. 30 experienced an equally rich world-wide peregrination through sixty-nine exhibitions (including travel venues) between 1930 and 1958. Locations stretched from New York to Carmel, Boston to San Francisco, Brooklyn to San Diego, Chicago to Los Angeles, and Bloomington to Washington. Internationally, it was on view in Paris and Charleroi [Belgium].
Its first outing, Weston’s significant and highly lauded 1930 solo show at Delphic Studios in New York (duplicated at the Denny-Watrous Gallery in Carmel, California and subsequent travel venues) inspired a pictorial piece in the December 1930 issue of Theatre Arts Monthly. Here, Pepper No. 30, Egg Slicer, Cypress—Point Lobos, and Bones are beautifully reproduced, one per page, accompanied by this insightful introduction: “Edward Weston, California photographer, has made his camera a creative artistic medium. No painter of modern times is more cognizant of dramatic form. And like many another artist he finds his drama in the commonplace. The four photographs shown here are a part of Mr. Weston’s exhibit at the Delphic Galleries, New York.”[19]
Pepper 30P, Egg Slicer, Cypress—Point Lobos, and Bones as illustrated in Theatre Arts Monthly December 1930. Collection of Paul M. Hertzmann, Inc.
New York Times art critic, Frances D. McMullen also wrote glowingly of the peppers she saw in the 1930 Delphic show:
The spectacle of the market stall dumped into the art gallery now gives New York pause. On the market stall green peppers writhe and shine, cabbages sit sullen and stolid, celery shakes out ruffles. … / Who would think of peppers, cabbage and celery for their looks alone? Who would dream of posing them before the camera’s eye in quest of new revelations of beauty? Who would essay to draw from them, by photograph, messages of such import that even artists would acclaim the experiment? / Edward Weston has thought of it and has done it, not only with vegetables but also with other usually prosaic subjects, as his fifty photographs on view at the Delphic Studios attest. It is through him and his camera as a medium that one is treated to the extraordinary sight of lowly things just as they are, untranslated by the magic of crayon or brush, elevated to the sphere of art. / With all the ardor of the modernist, Mr. Weston has joined in the search that animates all modern art, the quest for ‘significant form’; but he has gone about it in a way utterly different from the painter, the sculptor, the sketcher. They look within, searching the soul for conceptions to transfer to canvas or marble. He looks about him, finding within easy reach abundant exemplifications of the qualities they grope for. / … / Seven green peppers hung on a gallery wall are seven green peppers any housewife would recognize—and rail at for the troubles their involutions offer to the stuffer. But they are ‘more than peppers,’ in the Weston phrase. They are seven varied expositions of composition and line, of mass and proportion, of texture and form. Here is a mere green pepper photographed against the bottom of a pan, but fancy sees it as a human torso poised with grace and strength; another, a mere green pepper catching the highlights on curves molded against a somber background, might be a modernist conception of a man’s struggle to evolve from lower forms. / …[20]
Pepper No. 30’s final exhibition in Weston’s lifetime was the landmark retrospective 100 Photographs by Edward Weston, organized by and shown at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York from December 1956–February 1957. The Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) subsequently circulated it throughout the country as The World of Edward Weston. Beginning in April 1957, this highly popular show journeyed to twenty-five venues before concluding in November 1961— four and one-half years later—at the School of Fine Arts, Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Despite Weston’s sense of the “excitingly individual” possibilities inherent in peppers, 1930 proved to be the last year in which he photographed them. So, what is it about Pepper No. 30 that makes it timeless and captivating? Although not necessarily speaking of Pepper No. 30, perhaps it is Weston himself who best sums up its inherent power:
First I printed my favorite, the one made last Saturday, Aug. 2, just as the light was failing, —quickly made, but a week’s previous effort back of my immediate, unhesitating decision. A week? —Yes, on this certain pepper, —but twenty-eight years of effort, starting with a youth on a farm in Michigan, armed with a 0. 2 Bull’s Eye, 3 1/2 x 3 1/2, have gone into the making of this pepper, which I consider a peak of achievement. / It is a classic, completely satisfying, —a pepper—but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter. It has no psychological attributes, no human emotions are aroused: this new pepper takes one beyond the world we know in the conscious mind. / To be sure, much of my work has this quality, —many of my last year’s peppers, but this one, and in fact all the new ones, take one into an inner reality,—the absolute,—with a clear understanding, a mystic revealment. This is the “significant presentation” that I mean, the presentation through one’s intuitive self, seeing “through one’s eyes, not with them”: the visionary.[21]
Notes
Laurence Bass-Becking, “Foreword” to Exhibition of Photographs: Edward Weston, New York: Delphic Galleries, 1930. Weston met Bass-Becking, a Professor of Biology at Stanford University, in May 1930, a meeting he recorded in his Daybook on 22 May 1930 (Vol. 2, p. 163) as follows: “A recent, very enthusiastic visitor was Dr. Becking, scientist. In fact I have rarely had such understanding response,—and he reacted as a scientist. “You see things from the scientists’ viewpoint. I wish we could afford to have you around our laboratory,” he said. We are going to walk together all over Point Lobos someday: use each other’s eyes!”
Edward Weston, The Daybooks of Edward Weston, vol. 2, California, ed. Nancy Newhall (Millerton, N.Y.,1973), 37. On 29 August 1927, Weston wrote in his Daybook: “This pepper sits on top of a milk bottle. It has amazing convolutions.” Frustratingly, no print or published image of this intriguing photograph has come to light.
Ibid., 6 January 1928, p. 42.
Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, Exhibition: Edward Weston Brett Weston: Photographs, In the Print Rooms at the Los Angeles Museum … Oct. 4 to Nov. 2, ’27, exhibition catalogue, (Los Angeles, 1927).
Bullock’s Department Store, An Exposition of the Decorative Arts of Today Presented By Bullock’s, exhibition catalogue, (Los Angeles: Bullock’s Department Store, December1928).
“Personal Bits,” The Carmelite, 30 January 1929, 3.
“The Village News-Reel: Edward Weston, photographer, will occupy the Johan Hagemeyer studio…,” The Carmel Pine Cone, 4 January 1929, 14. This brief notice of Weston’s planned establishment in Hagemeyer’s former studio reads: “Edward Weston, photographer, will occupy the Johan Hagemeyer studio at Mountain View and Junipero avenues after the eleventh of the month.”
“Busy,” The Carmelite, 7 August 1929, 5.
See Pepper, 1929 in the collection of Scripps College, Claremont, California. Gift of C. Jane Hurley Wilson ’64 and Michael G. Wilson, Wilson Centre for Photography, London, UK; Accession number AR40. Although cataloguing on the Scripps College web site describes this as a “stone pedestal,” it appears much like a bone.
Aline Kistler, “Weston Prints Show Honesty And Simplicity,” San Francisco Chronicle, 25 August 1929, Section D, 5.
Daybooks, 19 July 1930, p. 175.
Amy Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, (Tucson, Arizona, 1992), fig. 606/1930.
Daybooks, 1 August 1930, p. 179.
Ibid., 3 August 1930, p. 180.
Edward Weston: Photographs, fig. 606/1930. In her comments for Pepper No. 30, Conger notes: “Weston made at least twenty-five prints of this image, making it his most popular pepper.”
José Rodriguez, “The Art of Edward Weston: Edward Weston—Crazy About Photography As Was Hokusai About Drawing,” California Arts & Architecture 38:5 [misprinted as 39:5], November 1930, pp. 36–38.
Daybooks, 11 September 1930, p. 185.
Guiseppe Turroni, “Forme.” Fotografia: Rivista Mensile D’Arte e Tecnica Fotografica 11:6–7, September 1958, 19–20.
“Photographs: Edward Weston,” Theatre Arts Monthly, 14:12, December 1930, 1073–1076.
Frances D. McMullen, “Lowly Things That Yield Strange, Stark Beauty,” The New York Times Magazine, 16 November 1930, 7, 20.
Daybooks, 8 August 1930, p. 181.
Pepper No. 30 Was Illustrated and/or Referred to in the Following Publications During the 1930s
Rodriguez, José. “The Art of Edward Weston: Edward Weston—Crazy About Photography As Was Hokusai About Drawing.” California Arts & Architecture 38:5 [misprinted as 39:5] (November 1930): 36–38. [Ill. p. 37]
McMullen, Frances D. “Lowly Things That Yield Strange, Stark Beauty.” The New York Times Magazine (16 November 1930): 7, 20.
“Photographs: Edward Weston.” Theatre Arts Monthly 14:12 (December 1930): 1073–1076. [Ill. p. 1073]
McMullen, Frances D. “Weston In New York” [excerpt from “Lowly Things That Yield Strange, Stark Beauty”]. The Carmelite 3:43 (4 December 1930): 7.
Armitage, Merle, ed. The Art of Edward Weston. New York: E. Weyhe, 1932. [Ill. Plate 5]
[Albright Art Gallery]. Modern Photography At Home and Abroad. Buffalo, New York: Albright Art Gallery, 1932.
“Beauty in Vegetables.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle Magazine for Women (15 May 1932): 7. [Ill. p. 7]
[Weston, Edward]. [Untitled pictorial section composed of eight Weston photographs]. The School Arts Magazine 31:10 (June 1932): 602–604. [Ill. p. 604]
Reade, Mary Adda. “Edward Weston’s Photographic Art Between Covers.” Monterey Peninsula Herald (27 December 1932): 5.
Weston, Edward. “Light vs. Lighting.” Camera Craft 46:5 (May 1939): 196–205. [Ill. frontispiece, p. 196]
Pepper No. 30 Appeared in the Following Exhibitions During the 1930s
Delphic Studios [Organized by the Delphic Studios, New York, New York and duplicated by the Denny-Watrous Gallery, Carmel, California], Exhibition of Photographs: Edward Weston, New York, New York, 15–31 October with subsequent extension to 15 November 1930 (Solo). [Original venue for exhibit with subsequent travel to the Grace Horne’s Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, about 25 April–? May 1931; the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, New York (revised version titled Forty Photographs of Plants and Plant Parts), 12 May 1931; and the Walden Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, June 1931.]
Denny-Watrous Gallery [Organized by the Delphic Studios, New York, New York and duplicated by the Denny-Watrous Gallery, Carmel, California], Edward Weston’s New York Show, Carmel, California, 25 October–6 November 1930 (Solo). [Original venue for exhibit with subsequent travel to the Vickery, Atkins and Torrey Gallery, San Francisco, California, 1–20 December 1930 and the Fine Arts Gallery, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, 30 May–June 1931. NOTE: The Denny-Watrous Gallery show duplicated and ran concurrently with the exhibition organized for the Delphic Studios, New York, New York, 15 October–15 November 1930; see above.]
Denny-Watrous Gallery, Portfolio Exhibit, Carmel, California, January 1932 (Group).
Albright Art Gallery, Modern Photography at Home and Abroad, Buffalo, New York, 7–25 February 1932 (Group).
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, Group f.64, San Francisco, California, 15 November 1932–1 January 1933 (Group).
Denny-Watrous Gallery, F.64, Carmel, California, late January–1 February 1933 (Group). [Version of exhibition that originated at M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 15 November 1932–1 January 1933 with subsequent travel, circulated in some instances by the Western Association of Art Museum Directors (WAAMD), to: [possibly WAAMD] Fresno State College, Fresno, California, 11?–25? February 1933; [possibly WAAMD] Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, California, 15 August–4 September 1933; [WAAMD] Seattle Art Museum, Washington, 5 October–6 November 1933; and [possibly WAAMD] Portland Museum of Art, Oregon, November 1933.]
Ansel Adams Gallery, Group f.64, San Francisco, California, 1–16 September 1933 (Group).
Los Angeles Museum of History, Science and Art, Group F.64, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, Late May – June? 1934 (Group). [Possible version of an exhibition that originated at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California, 15 November 1932–1 January.]
Morgan Camera Shop, Edward Weston Exhibition, Los Angeles, California, 1 November–24 December 1939 (Solo).
Edward Weston Bibliography 