Brett Weston
Biography
Described by curator Van Deren Coke (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) as, “the child genius of American photography,” Brett lived and photographed in Carmel from 1929-1992, the longest of any other photographer.
In 1925, Brett began his photographic career at the age of fourteen. His father, Edward Weston, would privately credit Brett with influencing his own work after that date. Like some musicians are said to be ‘born’ with an ear independent of their experience and training, Brett was gifted with a uniquely sophisticated ‘eye’ that is recognizable from his earliest work. Edward Weston wrote in his Daybooks that at 14, Brett was doing better work than he was at 30. For the next twenty years (1927-1948), Edward and Brett would become artistic colleagues. Donald Ross, a family friend, observed, “Brett never came after anyone.” Brett literally and metaphorically took the wheel during their mutual camera trips (Edward never learned to drive). He enthusiastically encouraged Edward to abandon Platinum photographic paper in favor of Silver Halide’s richer tonality, and completed much of their studio darkroom work. In his final years, looking back on his life in photography, Brett mused, “my father was my biggest fan.” Perhaps no one except Edward Weston understood the true magnitude of Brett’s innovative genius. It is a published error that Edward Weston “taught” Brett to photograph. Brett clarified Edward taught camera technique (to all four of his sons), but promptly gave them the freedom to develop their own creative eye. Brett firmly believed “a visual language speaks for itself,” and labored tirelessly to perfect his individual craft.
By the age of seventeen, Brett Weston’s work had been featured in international exhibitions and at twenty-one, he had his first solo museum show at the de Young in San Francisco. In the 1930’s, Brett made negative space the subject of a photograph for the first time in the history of the medium (according to art historian, Beaumont Newhall).
Brett Weston’s work ultimately became one of the defining poles of contemporary photography characterized by its technical precision, bold design, extremes of abstraction and private imagination. The excitement and tension in his photographs were Brett’s artistic response to pure form: the vocabulary of line, volume, pattern and light and dark. In the 1980’s, Weston’s abstractions were more playful and less orderly. Images of writhing reflections in skyscraper windows and the electrifying patterns of light on underwater figures captured his imagination. A final series of plant forms in Hawaii revealed a more mature language as a sense of mortality and introspection entered the frame. It was as if Weston began to contemplate the limits of the ego, or of reason, still affirming the self, but with more awareness of death and chaos. Markedly and fiercely true to only himself, these images are often punctuated with elements of humor, as well as more irrational elements of design.
Brett Weston’s lifetime of devotion and total involvement with the medium produced a body of work and contribution to photography that many viewers conclude ultimately surpassed his renowned father in sophisticated visual scope. Brett worked quietly more than three decades after Edward Weston’s death to “take the work as far as I can” and brilliantly conclude the remarkable 90-year Weston Legacy (1903-1993). Brett Weston’s intuitive visual genius has virtually no equal in the history of contemporary photography. His work can be found in many major museums, including the Getty and SFMOMA. His photographs are housed in the permanent collections of over 100 major institutions around the world.
1909
Edward Weston marries Brett Weston’s mother, Flora Chandler
1911
Brett Weston is born
1913
Edward Weston meets Margrethe Mather “the first important person in my life” who tells him that Brett will be an artist.
1925
Edward returns to Mexico with Brett. Brett starts making his first photographs at age 13.
1925
Edward Weston references Dadaism and Duchamp’s, Fountain with his image: Excusado, 1925.
1926
Brett Weston returns to Santa Monica with Edward and begins using negative space as a subject for the first time in the history of photography
1927
Brett and Edward Weston begin to exhibit together at what is now UCLA, curated by Barbara Morgan
1927
Brett photographs a locomotive a decade before Charles Sheeler.
1928
Edward opens Tropico portrait studio where Brett serves as his full time darkroom assistant. While briefly living in San Francisco, Brett becomes the first to photograph a building at this particular angle.
1929
Brett and Edward move to Carmel in January where they discover Weston Beach at Point Lobos. Brett’s work is chosen to exhibit alongside Edward’s in the avant-garde Deutsche Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Film und Foto.
1930
Brett moves to the San Fernando Valley and opens a photography studio. It was then he photographed his first nude.
1931
Brett discovers the sand dunes at Oceano with his brother Chandler and starts photographing there.
1932
Brett has his first solo exhibition at the M.H. De Young museum in San Francisco.
1934
Brett takes Edward to Oceano where he begins photographing as well.
1935
Brett is hired as a sculptor for PWAP. Brett and Edward open a portrait studio in Santa Monica. Edward takes the photographs and Brett does all the developing and printing.
1937 – 1938
Edward is awarded 2 Guggenheim Fellowships.
1943-1944
Enters draft transferred to Signal Corps duty in New York City, where he photographs with large-format 8×10 and Beaumont Newhall’s 11×14 view camera. He meets Paul Strand, who lets him use his darkroom and lenses.
1945-1946
Brett is awarded first Guggenheim Fellowship. Reassigned to Texas near El Paseo, where he discovers White Sands National Monument.
1947
Brett travels along the East Coast for 5 months photographing for the Guggenheim.
1948
Moves to Carmel and lives on Wildcat Hill where he meets Edward’s new assistant and his future wife, Dody.
1949
Brett releases White Sands portfolio.
1951
Brett releases New York portfolio.
1952
Brett assists Edward with the creation of his final Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio.
1956
Merle Armitage designs Brett’s first book, Brett Weston: Photographs, featuring 28 8×10 format reproductions.
1958
Edward Weston dies on New Year’s Day.
1960
Brett travels to Europe for the first time. He spends 8 months on the road and covers 30,000 miles.
1961 & 1963
Brett makes “Fifteen Photographs” and “Ten Photographs” Portfolios.
1966
Exhibition at the Amon Carter Museum in Texas.
1967
Releases “Baja Portfolio” of 15 photographs
1968
Brett returns to Europe as a guest of the German Government in cultural exchange, where they feature exhibitions of his work in Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Munich, and Berlin. At this time, he also begins using a medium format Rollei SL-66, given to him by Rollei in exchange for reviewing the camera and providing some prints.
1971
Brett has a one man exhibition at Friends of Photograph in Carmel, and returns to Europe shortly thereafter to create what becomes his most famous photograph, Canal, Netherlands, 1971.
1973
Creates the “Europe” Portfolio and is awarded a $5,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to photograph in Alaska.
1975
Creates the “Oregon” portfolio and celebrates the 50th Anniversary of his career in photography. A traveling exhibition of his work opens at the University of New Mexico, “Fifty Years in Photography,” organized by Beaumont Newhall. Brett Weston: Voyage of the Eye is published in conjunction with the exhibit
1978
Creates “Alaska” and “Twenty Photographs” portfolios and makes first trip to Hawaii.
1978
Starts his underwater nude series in Carmel Valley.
1980
Produces three portfolios, “Hawaii – Leaves and Lava” with fifteen photographs and a forward by Boon Morrison, and “Abstractions 1 and 2” with twenty photographs and a forward by Donald Ross. All three portfolios debut at the Grand Opening of Photography West Gallery in October. Aperture publishes, Brett Weston: Photographs from Five Decades. At this point Brett has had over 100 one-man exhibitions since the start of his career.
1986
Photography West publishes monograph, Brett Weston: A Personal Selection, which wins “Photography Book of the Year” from Friends of Photography.
1989
Photography West publishes Brett Weston: Master Photographer
1991
Photography West hosts Brett Weston’s 80th birthday party with Hawaiian theme at Stonepine, Carmel Valley, where he begins burning and later destroys a lifetime of negatives which he considered “an intermediate step” and not the final finished artwork
1992
Photography West publishes Hawaii: Fifty Photographs by Brett Weston.
1993
Brett suffered a stroke at his home in Waikoloa, Hawaii. In the hospital, he asked his brother Neil to bring his favorite dried banana leaf and 8×10 view camera to his room so he could photograph. Sadly, the stroke had paralyzed the entire left side of his body and after some struggle, Brett soon realized he could no longer photograph. He died shortly thereafter on January 22, 1993
Ansel Adams & Brett Weston: American West
A selection of original masterworks by Ansel Adams and Brett Weston
Aug 15 — Sep 15, 2023
Weston: Underwater Nudes
An exhibition featuring Brett Weston's underwater nudes.
Feb 1 — Mar 1, 2023
CONTACT
9 Works
ENLARGEMENTS
11 Works
UNDERWATER NUDES
15 Works
