Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958). Orick, North Coast, 1937. Gelatin silver print, printed by Brett Weston, 1953-1954...

Description

Edward Weston (American, 1886-1958)
Orick, North Coast, 1937
Gelatin silver print, printed by Brett Weston, 1953-1954
7-5/8 x 9-1/2 inches (19.4 x 24.1 cm) (image/sheet)
Numbered '2409' in pencil in photographer's estate stamp, verso.

LITERATURE:
E. Weston, "What is Photographic Beauty?" Camera Craft, June 1939, p. 250;
E. Weston and C. Wilson, California and the West: "A Statement by Edward Weston," Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1940 (reprinted by Aperture, 1978, p. 132);
K.K. Foley, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister, Dayton Art Institute, 1978, p. 49;
J.L. Enyeart, Edward Weston's California Landscapes, Little Brown & Co., 1984, pl. 7;
B. Newhall, Supreme Instants: The Photography of Edward Weston, Little Brown & Co., 1986, no. 81, pl. 109;
A. Conger, Edward Weston: Photographs from the Collection of the Center for Creative Photography, The Center for Creative Photography, 1992, fig. 1070.

In 1945 Weston began to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson's disease, which slowly progressed until by 1948, he took his last photograph. By the second half of 1952, Weston decided he should select a master set of his best work. Out of his approximately 3000 negatives, he would pick 1000 and have Brett Weston print five sets that he hoped would be purchased by institutions. "Perfectionists will howl that no one person could make 1000 photographs, worth saving, in a lifetime- and I might agree! But I do think 999 of them are of interest and quality worth saving, and who is to take out that one extra."

An anonymous donation of $6000 got the project started, and by January 1953, Brett was busy working in the darkroom making 5 or 6 prints each from about six negatives a week. According to Brett and Cole Weston, although Edward's health was in decline, he carefully supervised each print's quality. In 1954, sample books were assembled, but it is not known how many photographs were actually sold. In the end, Brett printed 832 negatives with only one complete set acquired by Dick McGraw and donated to the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Several hundred unspotted and unmounted Project Prints were part of the Weston estate sold to the Center of Creative Photography, Arizona, in 1981. It is unclear how many of each negative was printed. The labels on the Project Prints that were mounted and sold in the 1950s state that they are from editions of six. The reproduction labels made for the prints deaccessioned by the CCP state an edition of 10 per negative.

Robert B. Egelston (1930-2016) graduated from U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1954 and went on to graduate the first of his class at the Warton School, University of Pennsylvania. The Capital Group, a Los Angeles based investment management firm, was Egelston's first and only employer. He started at the bottom, but by the time he retired some 40 years later, he was chairman of the board of an organization managing $1.3 trillion. He began displaying his personal art collection on the walls of the Capital Group's offices. This led to his efforts to found and fund the Capital Group Foundation, which supported the arts and community ventures aside from collecting.

In 1989, the Capitol Group Foundation acquired around 500 Edward Weston Project Prints, of which 110 were transferred to Egleston's personal collection and are offered here. The Foundation's remaining Project Prints and more than 600 other photographs by Ansel Adams, Edward Curtis, John Gutman, Gordon Parks, and others were donated in 2019 to the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.


More information about Edward Weston. See also: Weston, Edward, Edward Henry Weston Artist.

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