Edward Weston: The Last Years in Carmel

Between 1938 and 1948, Edward Weston took the last photographs of his distinguished career. In 1938 he returned to scenic Carmel, California, after a twenty-five-thousand-mile, two-year journey through the American West on Guggenheim fellowships. He and his young wife, Charis, built a pine-wood home and studio overlooking the Pacific and only one mile from Point Lobos, the unspoiled headland that, over the years, had become the artist's favorite site for testing ideas and finding new approaches to advance his art. But in the decade following his return to Carmel, Weston photographed Point Lobos and the Big Sur with different eyes. Where he had previously focused on details and still lifes, he now found himself drawn to horizons, vistas, and moody atmospheres.
Photographs of this late period reveal a greater psychological component than do the more formalist images that preceded them. Weston's work became both a release and receptacle, as he battled with Parkinson's disease, experienced a failing marriage, and saw his sons leave for military service during World War II. No longer the brash adventurer nor satisfied with technical virtuosity and innovative composition, Weston, in a more somber state of mind, drew out the elemental power of his coastal environment. These landscapes - many previously unpublished - show us a new aspect of Weston's artistry and will surprise even those most familiar with his work. Touching portraits of Weston's family and domestic scenes in and around his home - all from this late period - have also been included here by curator and author David Travis, to give readers an in-depth view of the man behind the camera in the final years of his career.
This late body of work has never before been extensively researched or exhibited, in part because it is so markedly different from the earlier images that made Weston famous. The majority of the seventy-six photographs featured in this book is drawn from private and public collections, but most especially those of The Art Institute of Chicago and the University of California at Santa Cruz.