Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Waltman, Jack, collector. Waltman, Beverly, collector.
- Abstract:
- This collection contains fifty-five magazines, exhibition catalogs, brochures, and other printed material related to the career and life of Edward Weston (1886-1958), a pioneering 20th-century American photographer known for his exploration of form in landscapes, still lifes, and nudes. The collection includes published writings by and about Weston; publications containing his photographs; exhibition catalogs and brochures that feature his work and his contemporaries; as well as later tributes and articles about the photographer.
- Extent:
- 55 items in 3 boxes.
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection contains fifty-five magazines, exhibition catalogs, brochures, and other printed material related to the career and life of American photographer Edward Weston. The collection includes published writings by and about Edward Weston; publications containing his photographs; exhibition catalogs and brochures that feature his work and his contemporaries; as well as later tributes and articles about the photographer. The materials also include information about Group f64 and some of the items also focus on the photography of Weston's son Brett Weston.
Within the collection, there are seven periodicals with content by Weston, including three essays by Weston about photography in The Complete Photographer and American Photography. The twenty-nine periodicals with content about Weston include articles in photography journals, as well as popular magazines such as Westways, and vary from profiles of Weston to brief mentions of his work or articles accompanied by Weston's photographs.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Edward Weston (1886-1958) was a pioneering 20th-century American photographer known for his exploration of form in landscapes, still lifes, and nudes. Weston was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 24, 1886, and later moved to the Los Angeles, California, area, where he opened a portrait studio in 1911. Weston moved to Northern California in 1929 and began taking photographs of the region including many in the Point Lobos area near Carmel. In the 1930s, Weston participated in numerous exhibitions and was involved with other California photographers including Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, and Weston's apprentice Willard Van Dyke, with whom Weston founded the Group f/64 photography group in 1932. In 1937, Weston became the first photographer awarded a Guggenheim Foundation grant, and he published his first book of photographs, Seeing California with Edward Weston, in 1939. In the early 1940s, Weston selected and printed 500 of his photographs as a gift to the Huntington Library. Weston was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1947 and stopped taking photographs a year later. Weston died on January 1, 1958.
One of Weston's sons, Brett Weston (1911-1993), became a photographer and often collaborated with his father.
- Acquisition information:
- The Photographer: from a motion picture about Edward Weston was received as the gift of Jack and Beverly Waltman, August 2014; all other items are the gift of Jack and Beverly Waltman, March 2015.
- Arrangement:
-
The materials are organized in 3 series:
- Periodicals with content by Weston (Items 1-7)
- Periodicals with content about Weston (Items 8-37)
- Exhibition catalogs and miscellaneous (Items 38-55)
Within the series, items are arranged chronologically.
- Rules or conventions:
- Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.
- Location of this collection:
-
1151 Oxford RoadSan Marino, CA 91108, US
- Contact:
- (626) 405-2191