Contact

info@photographywest.com

Terms of Service & Condition of Sale

 

Welcome to Photography West! These Terms of Service (“Terms of Service”) govern your use of the website located at https://www.photographywest.com/ (the “Website”), and any other related content, features, materials, applications and/or services (collectively the “Services”) offered by Photography West Incorporated (“Photography West” or “we” or “us”).

BY USING THE WEBSITE AND THE SERVICES, YOU ACCEPT ALL OF THE PROVISIONS OF THESE TERMS OF SERVICE (AND ANY ADDITIONAL TERMS INCORPORATED HEREIN) AND REPRESENT TO US THAT YOU ARE LEGALLY COMPETENT TO ENTER INTO AND AGREE TO THESE TERMS OF USE. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, THEN YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO USE ANY OF PHOTOGRAPHY WEST’S SERVICES.

For purposes of these Terms of Service, “you” and “your” means you as the user of the Website or the Services. If you use the Website or the Services on behalf of a company, organization, or other entity, then (a) “you” includes you and that entity, (b) you represent and warrant that you are an authorized representative of the entity with the authority to bind the entity to these Terms of Service, and that you agree to these Terms of Service on the entity’s behalf, and (c) your entity is legally and financially responsible for your use of the Services as well as for the use of your account by others affiliated with your entity, including any employees, agents or contractors.

These Terms of Service describe your responsibilities, Photography West’s liability and the liability of third parties related to the Website and the Services. All users of the the Website and the Services must accept and comply with the terms and conditions set forth herein. Certain portions of the Website may be subject to additional terms and conditions specified by us from time to time. Your use of the Website is subject to those additional terms and conditions. If you have any questions regarding these Terms of Service, please contact us via email at info@photographywest.com.

Age Requirement

You may not use the Website if you are under the age of 18. If you are under the age of 18, you may only access the Website under the supervision of a parent or legal guardian and subject to his or her consent to these Terms of Service.

Website Security

You agree not to make any attempt to violate the security of the Website or the Website’s host server(s). You are prohibited from violating or attempting to violate any security features of the Website, including, without limitation, (a) accessing content or data not intended for you, or logging onto a server or account that you are not authorized to access; (b) attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Website or any associated system or network, or to breach security or authentication measures without proper authorization; (c) interfering or attempting to interfere with service to any user, host, or network including, without limitation, by means of submitting a virus to the Website, overloading, “flooding,” “spamming,” “mail bombing,” or “crashing;” (d) using the Website to send unsolicited e-mail, including, without limitation, promotions, or advertisements for products or services; (e) forging any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any e-mail; or (f) attempting to modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reduce or attempt to reduce to a human-perceivable form any of the source code used by Photography West in providing the Website. Any violation of system or network security may subject you to civil and/or criminal liability.

Copyright

You acknowledge that the materials on the Website (including the overall design, text and images of artwork) are protected by copyright and other proprietary rights.  Your use of the Website is at all times governed by and subject to laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property. You agree not to copy, reproduce, publish, transmit, download, distribute, or otherwise use or appropriate these materials (the “Content”) in any way without our prior written consent. You also agree not to embed or frame any of the Content on the Website without our prior written consent. You agree to abide by laws regarding copyright ownership and use of intellectual property, and you shall be solely responsible for any violations of any relevant laws and for any infringements of third party rights caused by any Content you provide or transmit. The burden of proving that any Content does not violate any laws or third party rights rests solely with you.  Any unauthorized use of the materials on the Website will result in an immediate breach of these Terms of Service, as well as other applicable laws. If you believe material on the Website infringes the copyrights of another person, please email us at info@photographywest.com.

Photography West reserves the right to terminate your use of the Website. To ensure that Photography West provides a high quality experience for you and for other users of the Website, you agree that we or its representatives may access and review your use of the Website on a case-by-case basis to investigate complaints or allegations of abuse, infringement of third party rights, or other unauthorized uses of the Website. Photography West does not intend to disclose the existence or occurrence of such an investigation unless required by law, but Photography West reserves the right to terminate your access to the Website immediately, with or without notice to you, and without liability to you, if Photography West believes that you have violated any of the Terms of Use, furnished Company with false or misleading information, or interfered with use of the Website or the Service by others.

Trademarks

You agree not to use Photography West trademarks and other source-identifying indicia without our prior written consent.

Disclaimers

While we do our best to prevent viruses, worms, and other harmful materials from being distributed through the Website, we do not warrant that materials on the Website will be free of such materials. We will not be held liable for any damage caused by the use of the Website. Users assume all risk when viewing or otherwise accessing the Website. We will make reasonable efforts to keep the Website service available on an ongoing basis. You may experience poor performance or temporary unavailability from time to time based on the need for us to provide maintenance or for other reasons (whether or not beyond our control). We shall not be liable for any poor performance or unavailability of the Website.

PHOTOGRAPHY WEST DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES.  THE MATERIAL ON THIS WEBSITE (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION ALL CONTENT, SOFTWARE, FUNCTIONS, SERVICES, MATERIALS, AND INFORMATION MADE AVAILABLE ON OR ACCESSED BY MEANS OF THE WEBSITE) ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” TO THE USER.  TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, PHOTOGRAPHY WEST EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THE WEBSITE INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  PHOTOGRAPHY WEST DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE OR THE SERVICE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE.

Limitation of Liability

YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK OF LOSS RESULTING FROM YOUR USE OF THE WEBSITE AND ANY INFORMATION ON THE WEBSITE. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL WE OR ANY OF OUR AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, MEMBERS, OWNERS, AGENTS, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVES BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES EVEN IF WE OR ANY OF OUR AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, MEMBERS, OWNERS, AGENTS, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. YOU HEREBY RELEASE US AND OUR AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, OWNERS, AGENTS, AND OTHER REPRESENTATIVES FROM ANY AND ALL OBLIGATIONS, LIABILITIES, AND CLAIMS COVERED BY THIS LIMITATION TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless us and our affiliates, employees, members, owners, agents, or other representatives from any and all claims, damages, costs, and expenses (including but not limited to attorneys’ fees) arising from or in relation to your use of the Website and/or your breach of any representation, warranty, or other provision of these Terms of Use. For the avoidance of doubt, this will include disputes that are settled out of court or resolved through mediation or arbitration, at our election.

Controlling Law; Venue and Jurisdiction

These Terms of Use shall be governed by the laws of the United States and the State of California, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Venue and jurisdiction for any claims arising under this agreement shall lie exclusively with the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Monterey.

Revisions to Terms of Use

We retain the right to alter or terminate these Terms of Use at any time without notice. The current Terms of Use at any given time supersede any and all previous Terms of Use. At our option, we may notify users of changes to these terms through the Terms of Use hyperlink on the Website and/or by email. Any modification is effective as of the posting of the change.

Entire Agreement

These Terms of Use constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Website excepting only our Privacy Policy. Failure by us to enforce any provision of these Terms of Use shall not be construed as a waiver of any provision or right. If any term or provision of these Terms of Use is found to be unenforceable, the remaining terms and provisions shall survive in full force and effect.

Severability; Waiver

If, for whatever reason, a court of competent jurisdiction finds any term or condition in these Terms of Use to be unenforceable, all other terms and conditions will remain unaffected and in full force and effect. No waiver of any breach of any provision of these Terms of Use shall constitute a waiver of any prior, concurrent, or subsequent breach of the same or any other provisions hereof, and no waiver shall be effective unless made in writing and signed by an authorized representative of the waiving party.

No License

Nothing contained on the Website should be understood as granting you a license to use any of the trademarks, service marks, or logos owned by Photography West or by any third party.

California Use Only

The Site is controlled and operated by Photography West from its offices in the State of California. Photography West makes no representation that any of the materials or the services to which you have been given access are available or appropriate for use in other locations. Your use of, or access to, the Website should not be construed as Photography West’s purposefully availing itself of the benefits or privilege of doing business in any state or jurisdiction other than California.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about these Terms of Use, please contact us using the information provided below.

Mailing Address:
Photography West – Legal
PO Box 5306
Carmel, CA 93921

ORDERS

Terms and Conditions of Sale:

These terms and conditions apply to any order you place through www.photographywest.com (“our Website”). Please read these terms carefully before you submit your order to us. These terms tell you who we are, how we will provide products to you, how you and we may change or end the contract, what to do if there is a problem and other important information.

About Photography West:

We are Photography West, Incorporated, a California corporation, registered in the United States of America. Seller’s permit #015-791510. Our registered mailing address is PO Box 5306, Carmel, CA 93921.

Order Process:

To place an order with us online, please do so via our guest checkout. You will be required to provide some compulsory personal information (including a valid email address) so that we can fulfill your order. You confirm that all information provided by you to us is true, accurate and up to date. If there is an issue with the shipping or billing address provided, we will contact you via phone or email.

Please see our Privacy Policy for further details on how we use your personal information.

Our Website will provide you with instructions on the process for ordering products. Your order is deemed to be placed when you press the “confirm order” button at the end of the checkout process.

We will email you to acknowledge receipt of your order, but this does not confirm acceptance of your order. Our acceptance of your order will take place when we ship the products.

Prior to shipping the products, we may decline your order for any reason (including stock availability), our inability to obtain authorization for your payment, a pricing or product description error or any other circumstances. If we decline your order for any reason, we will inform you of this in writing and will not charge you for the products. If we have taken payment prior to declining your order, we will provide a full refund.

We will assign an order number to your order and tell you what it is when we acknowledge your order. It will help us if you can tell us the order number whenever you contact us about your order.

Price and Payment:

The price of the product will be the price in US Dollars ($USD) indicated on the order page when you place your order. We take reasonable care to ensure that the price of the product advised to you is correct. However, we may decline your order prior to shipping of the products if we discover an error in the price of the products you order. If we have taken payment prior to declining your order, we will provide a full refund.

The prices displayed on our product pages do not include sales tax or the cost of delivery or shipping. These additional charges are calculated and applied at the checkout. If the tax rate changes between the date of your order and the date of delivery, we will adjust the tax you pay, unless you have already paid for the Products in full before the change in tax takes effect. You will have to pay our shipping delivery charges as quoted on the Website at the time we accept your order. The amount of these shipping charges may vary depending on the shipping location you provide during checkout.

Please note that a 9.25% sales tax will apply to orders scheduled for pickup or shipping to any address located within the state of California. If you order products from our site for shipping outside California, or the United States, California sales tax will not apply, but they may be subject to import duties and taxes which are levied when the shipment reaches the specified destination. You will be responsible for payment of any such duties and taxes. Please note that we have no control over these charges and cannot predict their amount. Please contact your local tax or customs authorities for further information before placing your order.

Please also note that you must comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the state and country for which the products are destined. We will not be liable for any breach by you of any such laws.

We accept payment with most major credit and debit cards. You must pay for the products before we ship them. Payment is taken by our preferred electronic payment provider, Stripe, at the time we accept your order. Any refunds will also be issued through Stripe.

Our products:

We take the utmost care to ensure our products are accurately described and documented on our Website. However, please note that actual image size measurements are approximate and may be a reference to the artist’s paper size, not the visible image size within the window. For example, Christopher Burkett’s original Cibachromes made on 30” x 30” Cibachrome paper, measure approximately 28.25” x 28.25” in the window of the overmat.

The mounted dimensions are accurate within ½ of an inch. The Website may contain typographical errors, omissions, or other inaccurate information, including but not limited to photograph descriptions and information related to availability and pricing. We reserve the right to correct errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies and to change or cancel orders at any time and without notice. Also, while we have attempted to display as accurately as possible our photographs on the Website, we cannot guarantee that any photograph you purchase will appear exactly as it appears on the Website – the colors you see may depend on the computer or device on which you are viewing our Website and may not accurately reflect the exact colors of the product on delivery.

All photographs displayed on the Website include an HD video condition report (written report upon request) and are sold “As-Is” and “With All Faults.” If you have any questions or concerns about specific products, please contact us directly prior to purchasing and we will happily assist you.

Shipping:

For all domestic orders, artwork with mounted dimensions under 40” x 48” will be shipped FedEx, unless you select another carrier. All publications are shipped FedEx or USPS Media Mail with tracking. We will notify you via email of the ship date and tracking information, so you know when your order has left our premises and is on its way. If you require a special delivery method, please contact us at the gallery before your purchase and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

All shipments of photographs will require a signature upon delivery with no exceptions.

Some items may be shipped the next day, whereas special ordered and framed photographs will take longer. For example, we ship Wednesday – Friday, so orders placed over the weekend will likely ship on the following Wednesday. If you decide to order the photograph framed, please allow for 3 – 6 weeks from the date of order for the delivery of these items.

If we encounter any significant delays in sending your order out to you, we will contact you by email.

We operate as a very small team here at the gallery. At particularly busy times of year (Christmas, exhibition openings, etc.), please allow 5-7 business days for your order to be fulfilled. If you would like your order to arrive on or before a specific date, please include a note when you place the order with said delivery date details, or email us within 6 hours of placing your order at info@photographywest.com. You may also reach us by phone at 1-831-625-1587. We will do our very best to accommodate your request.

Delivery:

We will send you an email to confirm when your order has shipped, along with the detailed tracking number.

Any timelines for delivery will be estimates provided by the shipping company. If the delivery of your order is delayed by an event outside our control, we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimize the effect of the delay. Once your order has been shipped, we will not be liable for delays in delivering your order, but please contact us if there is a delay and we will do our best to resolve the issue.

All orders for photographs require a direct signature to acknowledge delivery. If no one is available at the address to sign for the delivery, the shipping carrier (likely FedEx) will either leave a note or send an email informing you of how to rearrange delivery or collect the products from a local facility.

If, after a failed delivery to you, you do not re-arrange delivery, we will contact you for further instructions. If, despite our reasonable efforts, we are unable to contact you or re-arrange delivery or collection, the undeliverable items will be returned to us and we will refund your original payment method minus the shipping charges and a 3% processing fee.

The products will be your responsibility, and the risk of loss and/or damage to the products will pass to you when they are delivered to the address specified in your order.

 

24 Hour Cancellation Policy:

If you have changed your mind about an order, or placed an order by mistake, please submit an immediate cancellation request the same day and we will cancel your order. Delayed cancellation requests are subject to a 3% processing fee.

 

Damaged or incorrectly supplied products:

While we do our best to pack items as diligently as possible, accidents can occur during transit. In the case a signature-required shipment arrives with apparent exterior damage, please do not sign for the shipment and request it be returned to us. A resolution will be promptly provided in the form of repair, replacement or refund.

Please check your products upon delivery. If the products you have received are damaged or incorrectly supplied you, please contact us immediately at info@photographywest.com or 1-831-625-1587. In the case of damage, please email us photographs of the shipping container, as well as the damage, and we will provide a prompt resolution.

 

Order changes:

If you wish to make a change to your order before it is shipped, please contact us within 24 hours of placing the order and we will let you know about any changes to the price of the products, the timing of delivery or anything else which would be necessary as a result of your requested change and ask you to confirm whether you wish to go ahead with the change.

 

Guarantee:

Our top priority is for our customers to be happy. We guarantee all merchandise sold by the gallery is authentic and as described. If you are not satisfied with your purchase, we will accept returns for exchange for a store credit (minus shipping charges) or refund within 7 days of delivery unless the item is invoiced as “final sale.” Store credits are valid for 12 months of the purchase date.

  • Returns of original photographs are accepted within 7 days of delivery to purchaser’s destination
  • Returned photographs should be in the same condition as received – undamaged, saleable, with the original packaging.
  • Shipping charges are non-refundable
  • Books and Posters are non-refundable
  • Photography West reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to determine if a returned photograph is in saleable condition.

 

Limitation of Liability:

PHOTOGRAPHY WEST, INCORPORATED, AND ITS AFFILIATES, EMPLOYEES, MEMBERS, OWNERS, AGENTS, OR OTHER REPRESENTATIVES, WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, WARRANTY, OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER THE PHOTOGRAPHY WEST INCORPORATED PARTIES WERE ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSSES OR DAMAGES, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES.

EXCEPT AS MAY BE PROVIDED IN ANY ADDITIONAL TERMS, TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHY WEST INCORPORATED PARTIES, FOR ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE WEBSITE, SERVICES PROVIDED OR PRODUCTS SOLD THAT ARE SUBJECT TO THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, REGARDLESS OF THE FORM OF ACTION, IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF (A) TWO THOUSAND US DOLLARS ($2,000.00), OR (B) THE AMOUNT WE HAVE ACTUALLY RECEIVED FROM YOU IN PAYMENT FOR SUCH SERVICES OR PRODUCTS.

Assignment: We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms of Service to another organization. We will tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.

Severability: Each of the paragraphs of these Terms of Service operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

Waiver: If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these Terms of Service, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaching these Terms of Service, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.

Jurisdiction and applicable law: If you are a consumer, these Terms of Service, their subject matter and their formation, are governed by the laws of the State of California.

Last updated: June 8, 2026

Interest-Free Layaway

At Photography West, we want you to have the art you love. To make the work more accessible, we offer interest-free layaway options to our valued clients. While most programs last 3 to 6 months, shorter or longer terms are also considered. Please contact us to discuss your personalized payment plan.

Acclaimed Monographs

Photography West Graphics

For thirty years (1983-2013), Photography West Graphics collaborated with Ansel Adams’ renowned book printer and lithographer, David Gray Gardner, until his retirement at age 87 in 2013. Together we set new standards for photographic reproductions and generated the finest quality photographic monographs of the era, winning numerous awards, including “Photography Book of the Year” from Friends of Photography. During press production, the photographers would join us on site at Dual Graphics in Brea, California, to personally inspect and approve the reproductions in their forthcoming book. The plates themselves were made from unique wet-process works handmade from film (not scans of film) with the desire to give readers an opportunity to experience what the original photographs would be like to hold in their own hands. Reproductions were sometimes individually spot varnished to produce a distinctive high gloss and text papers were heavier weight for the same reason. Bindings and end papers featured custom imported fabric and embossed with elegant designs in our later editions. Each book was considered an art project by our founder, Carol Williams, who worked closely with the individual photographers to present their images for more widespread public viewing.

With one exception – Ruth Bernhard’s, The Eternal Body (1986), which still enjoys printings by Chronicle Books (and recently Amazon!) and has sold over 30,000 copies – all our photography books were exclusively hardbound, limited, collectible first editions. In 2013, Photography West published a final concluding monograph, Roman Loranc: Absolution – Fifty Photographs from Europe. It won three awards, including the United States Literary Award for Fine Art Photography and the 2014 Gold Medal “North American Printer of the Year” for Dual Graphics.

In addition to our publications, we offer a select number of monographs from other exceptional publishers featuring our gallery photographer’s work.

Julia Brett Christopher

Julia Brett Christopher (American, 1983 -) grew up in Carmel, California, in the heart of West Coast photography. Brett Weston, who doted on Julia as the grandchild he never had, fondly encouraged her to take up both photography and riding horses as a toddler. She spontaneously made her first photographs at Weston’s Carmel Valley residence at the age of two. After having taken classes at ICP (Institut Catholique de Paris) and graduating from Santa Catalina School, she went on to study classical painting at New York University’s Steinhardt and art history at their extension program in Paris, France.

She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 2006, where she pursued abiding interests in fine art, philosophy, marketing, creative writing, and photography. While living in Manhattan, she was scouted by an agency and briefly worked as a model and event promoter, but far preferred being behind the camera than in front of it. During that time, she assisted fashion photographer, Howard Schatz, on a project about Club Culture. She departed New York for Europe in 2006, and returned to settle in Carmel in 2008, where she narrowed her artistic focus to medium format black and white film photography.

She began using Brett Weston’s former Pentax 67 camera and studied darkroom craft with Greg Mettler, Bob Kolbrener and Luther Gerlach, who introduced her to the 19th century wet plate collodion process. Today she pursues her own photography with a Hasselblad 205 TCC, while working as an educator, art historian, conservator, web developer, owner and CEO of Photography West, Incorporated, the first educational e-commerce platform devoted to wet-process photography. Each gallery photographer is an accomplished darkroom master, using film, archival photographic papers, and wet processes. Many have created their own darkroom chemistry, built their own cameras, and even invented their own unique, light-sensitive techniques. (Photography West has been told they are now the only photography establishment in the United States that does not show digital or digital/darkroom multimedia processes like film-scanning).

At the publishing branch of the gallery, Photography West Graphics, she contributed to two major publications as both an author and editor – Brett Weston at One Hundred (2011) and Roman Loranc, Absolution: Fifty Photographs from Europe (2013). Over the last decade, Christopher has closed over $15 million in fine art photography sales, curated dozens of exhibitions and hosted various artist receptions, conducted in person and online lectures at colleges and photography groups, in addition to educating the general public about fine art photography.

Carol Williams never talks about her own work as a photographer, which is a surprise, considering the company she keeps in her gallery – Ansel Adams, Morley Baer, Christopher Burkett, Paul Caponigro, Kenro Izu, Roman Loranc, Don Worth and Edward and Brett Weston, to name a few. Williams co-founded Photography West Gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in 1980, with dear friends and fellow photographers Ron C. James (1937-2013), Claudette Bargeen Dibert (1942-1982) and the legendary Brett Weston (1911-1993) widely regarded as the child genius of American photography.

The gallery shows only accomplished darkroom masters using film, archival photographic papers and wet processes, each piece hand-crafted by the artist. “Brett used to tell me the integrity of the photograph depends on the photographers doing the darkroom work themselves,” Williams says of the late Brett Weston, with whom she had over a decade of “photographic adventures” spanning the Monterey Peninsula to the Big Island of Hawai’i. Not only has Williams persisted for 40 years in showing only artist-produced film photography, but Photography West Gallery is perhaps the only photographic gallery in the world today that holds this distinction.

The light and the rugged beauty of the Monterey Peninsula has famously attracted artists, writers and photographers since the early 1900s, with locales such as windswept Garrapata Beach and rocky Point Lobos. Edward Weston (1886-1958), who is credited as being the most influential American photographer of the twentieth century, moved to Carmel in 1929, and it was the images he created here that eventually would bring him international acclaim. He had four sons: Chandler, Brett, Neil and Cole, and it was Brett who would follow in his father’s footsteps. Brett’s career launched at age 13, when Edward brought him to Mexico, where he encountered the likes of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. By the time Ansel Adams moved to Carmel in 1962, Brett had had already established a name for himself, having won a Guggenheim fellowship in 1947 and exhibited internationally. Williams tells an anecdote that before Ansel Adams moved to Carmel in 1962, he called up Brett Weston and asked, “Do you think Carmel is big enough for both of us?”

At that time, photography was unrecognized as fine art. “In the 1970s, photography was taught in the journalism departments and not considered a legitimate art medium,” says Williams, who singles out a particular 1970 issue of LIFE Magazine as one of her early influences. She cut out images by photography icons Imogen Cunningham, Don Worth, and Jerry Uelsmann, mounting and framing the black and whites and displaying them in her dorm room at Western Washington University. “We were studying surrealism, and it was Uelsmann’s allegorical images that sparked my initial realization and conviction that photography should be included in the history of modern art,” she says. “It was this undeniable link to surrealism that really launched me into seeing photography as very significant modern art,” Williams says. “Jerry Uelsmann was the original catalyst for me.”

After graduating in 1974, Williams moved to Carmel, attracted by the art and photography scene of the Monterey Peninsula. Photography – indeed the arts – had largely been a man’s world, but Williams says that women in the area started taking up photography in the ‘70s. “It was a very free-spirited decade in California culture, particularly in Big Sur and Carmel. Many women were exploring their identities, and many used a camera to discover who they were or might be,” says Williams. “I definitely was investigating that genre in my own work.”

In her twenties, Williams worked by day in the library at Monterey Peninsula College and took photography classes at night. When she had a chance to meet Brett Weston at a Christmas party in 1976, she recalled thinking, “Oh! My opportunity to have a conversation with Brett Weston! I’ll ask him what light meter he recommends for a beginning photographer,’” The meeting proved pivotal: “Brett Weston declared, ‘no good photographer uses a light meter. If you can’t read the light on your skin, you shouldn’t be a photographer.’”

Owing to this unexpectedly shocking revelation, Williams never bought a light meter and changed her approach to photography. “I realized that photography is a significant exchange and interaction with light,” she explains. “It’s not just what you see with your eyes but involves the whole body. Your body is a light meter.” She continued to explore this concept in her work and photography classes.

Williams had never imagined ever owning a business. The idea of starting an artistic cooperative was contemplated with fellow photographers; however no one had either the time or money to make it happen.

In 1979, for the first time, the Small Business Administration began offering small business loans to women. Prior to that – a mere forty years ago — women needed a husband’s or male relative’s signature to apply for a loan. “I heard Jimmy Carter had a new SBA program to help women start their own businesses, so I went over to the local bank,” Williams remembered. In 1980, she became one of the first single women to be approved for an SBA start-up loan.

In a flash, the news spread around Carmel — a single, 29-year-old woman wanted to open a new photography gallery in town. But the gallery became inevitable once Brett Weston got word: a photographer told her Weston wanted to meet her. “She brought me to his house, and Brett opened the door saying, ‘So, you’re the young girl everyone says will lose her shirt opening a photography gallery; I’ll help you.’”

The two quickly connected. “He was a 51-year resident of the Monterey Peninsula and I was a 28-year-old newcomer, but there was a tremendous simpatica between us. We were just on the same page about photography, we were both totally obsessed and electrified by the images,” Williams recalls.

On October 25, 1980, five hundred people lined the streets of Carmel-by-the-Sea for the opening of Photography West Gallery. The opening featured a show of three new Brett Weston portfolios, seen for the first time: Leaves and Lava – Hawaii: 15 photographs from the Big Island; Abstractions, Portfolio #1, 1927-1980; and Abstractions, Portfolio 2, 1925-80. Copies of Weston’s newly released book, Brett Weston, Selections from Five Decades, were shipped in from New York, and Weston signed books all evening long.

Fine art photography was catching on, and the techies of the Silicon Valley were among its admirers. A young Steve Jobs came into the gallery in the early 1980s, admiring the work of Ansel Adams. “Steve asked if I would take a partial trade for his newest computer. ‘It’s called a Macintosh,’ he said hopefully,” she laughs. “We were both very young and just starting out, so I said sure, to help him out and ended up curating exhibitions for him at Apple and Next for the next decade!”

In 1985, San Francisco photographer Ruth Bernhard (1905-2006), whose images of nudes hang on the walls of Photography West, confided a concern to Williams. “Ruth said she knew there’d be a book of her photography after her death, but she’d hoped there’d be one while she was still alive,” says Williams. “I was concerned her work would be lost to history,” says Williams. “Ansel considered Ruth Bernhard to be the greatest photographer of the nude. But every commercial publisher I approached told me: ‘a woman photographer who does nudes in black and white? It will never sell.’ No one would publish her work. But then, it dawned on me that since I had a gallery, I could sell Ruth’s photographs to raise money for her book, so Ruth and I decided to collaborate.” Thus, a new chapter was born for Williams and the gallery: book publishing.

Adams introduced Williams to his printer, Dave Gardner, who at the time owned Los Angelesbased Gardner-Fulmer Lithograph. “He is legendary in the printing business for his patented Fultone process that by the early ‘80’s created incredible detail in reproduction quality by laserscanning the original photographs,” says Williams. Local photographer and graphics designer, Jerry Takigawa, created a simple design, and Williams published a series of limited edition posters to display in the gallery window. “Ansel would get all excited and dance around in front of his huge fireplace – nobody had ever seen such incredibly detailed reproductions,” recounts Williams.

Ruth Bernhard with her assistant Michael Kenna created five limited edition photographs to sell and raise money to publish Bernhard’s book. “We published Ruth’s book, The Eternal Body, ourselves,” says Williams. “Brett Weston was disappointed with the plate quality of his most recent book, so he also wanted a book featuring his best unpublished photographs. And that was how I got started in publishing.”

No commercial publisher wanted to produce books to the same high quality, according to Williams; it was expensive and there was no known market for them. “However, after my first two books won Photography Book of the Year from Friends of Photography, one of the publishers who had initially rejected Ruth’s book proposal called to tell me, ‘you’ve set a new publishing standard in photography books,’ and offered to buy the entire run. That first edition quickly sold out. The Eternal Body is the only book I ever reprinted – to celebrate Ruth’s 100th birthday.” Williams’ thirty-year collaboration with Dave Gardner resulted in eleven monographs for her gallery photographers. Her final monograph, a collection of fifty European photographs by Polish photographer Roman Loranc, entitled Absolution, was released in 2013. “It won several awards including the United State Literary Award and was my grand finale. Dave Gardner retired that year so I decided it was time for me to conclude book publishing,” she says.

Williams, now semi-retired, makes her home on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Brett Weston introduced her to the island in 1981. “For more than a decade, I would go to Hawaii every year and Brett and I would drive out at sunrise and have these amazing photographic adventures,” says Williams. Weston died in 1993 in Kona, Hawaii at age 82. “Brett was such a gift. A true free spirit, extremely loyal to the people he liked,” says Williams. “And never in my life have I ever met a person so in tune to light. He had a rare heightened intuitive sensitivity, it was always this quest for light.” All of the images that hang in Photography West Gallery are original, individually handcrafted photographs made with gelatin silver, platinum palladium or Cibachrome papers, from medium and large format film. With digital on the rise, darkroom materials are more and more difficult and costly to come by, Williams hopes that traditional light-based darkroom processes will be rediscovered and increasingly appreciated – not eclipsed as a relic from a by-gone era.

Written by Marina Blythe Davalos

  • Original Photographs
    Original Photographs
    • Women's Photography Alcove
      • Ruth Bernhard
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Ruth Bernhard,

        The woman that Ansel Adams called “the greatest photographer of the nude.” Bernhard is world renowned for her classical and luminous forms which clearly transcend the boundaries between spirit and flesh.

      • Mary Ann Bushweller
        mary ann bushweller gelatin silver photograph cyclamen bud

        With a delicate yet graphic sensibility, this East Coast medium format photographer shares a world of intimate simplicity with her viewers. Using traditional darkroom techniques, Ilford film and photographic paper, each work is carefully crafted by the artist’s own hand.

      • Martha Casanave
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Martha Casanave,

        Martha Casanave is one of the most important West Coast portrait photographers of the past forty years. Awarded the Imogen Cunningham Photography Award for portraiture in 1979, she continues to approach her subjects with a distinctive eye that expands the genre of environmental portraiture historically associated with Arnold Newman.

      • Julia Brett Christopher
        Original selenium toned Gelatin Silver photograph by Julia Brett Christopher,

        Julia Christopher has dedicated her life to supporting contemporary photographers at Photography West. In her own work, she utilizes 19th and 20th century darkroom techniques, working primarily with medium format film.

      • Imogen Cunningham
        Platinum-Palladium photograph by Imogen Cunningham,

        Known as the “Grandmother of Photography” and a founding member of the Group f64, the powerful vision and realism of Imogen Cunningham influenced even Edward Weston as she pursued one of the longest and most important careers in the history of photography.

      • Carol Henry
        Unique 20x24 inch camera-less Florachome direct-positive photograph by Carol Henry,

        Inspired by the flower paintings of Georgia O’Keefe, Carol Henry spent six years inventing and perfecting her own unique process: “Florachrome” – a direct exposure of a flower onto Cibachrome photographic paper. Each piece is made without the use of a camera and a one-of-a-kind work of art.

      • Yumiko Izu
        Yumiko Izu Secret Garden Blanc 114

        Paying homage to the yin and yang of life through the fleeting life cycle of flowers, Yumiko Izu’s Platinum Palladium and Cyanotype alternative process photographs are not only a testament to her mastery of darkroom, but also her delicate focus on composition.

      • Eleanor Owen Kerr
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Eleanor Owen Kerr,

        Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kerr’s intimate photographs of her native landscape capture a sense of symbiotic dichotomy – ephemera and permanence, passages and sanctuaries, reflections and revelations – on 4×5-format black and white film.

      • Olivia Parker
        Vintage original selenium toned fiber-based Gelatin Silver photograph,

        Originally a painter, Olivia Parker has been creating evocative still life collages for nearly forty years. One finds oneself enraptured by the immense depth and rich tonal range of her vintage photographs handmade with now discontinued Kodak Azo photographic paper.

      • Lilo Raymond

        Lilo Raymond’s photographs relentlessly pare away the inessential, presenting simple subjects – a nearly made bed, a vase of flowers by a window, enveloped in a rich veil of natural light.

      • Joyce Tenneson
        joyce tenneson polaroid cloud woman full frame

        Joyce Tenneson, author of Wise Women, has been voted among the ten most influential women photographers in the history of photography. Her luminous and unique oversized Polaroid’s and vintage gelatin silver self-portraits emanate a poignant, Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic sensibility.

    • Main Gallery
      • Ansel Adams
        Pristine original gelatin silver,

        Striking photographs of Yosemite and the surrounding Sierra Nevada capturing the elusive visual myth and mood of these wild places became the wellspring of Ansel Adam’s consciousness and brought him widespread popular acclaim.

      • Morley Baer
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph,

        Morley Baer spent a lifetime capturing the subtleties and intricacies of the California Central Coast while simultaneously earning acclaim for his brilliant architectural studies with his 8×10 camera.

      • Christopher Burkett
        Original Cibachrome photograph by Christopher Burkett,

        An internationally recognized expert in the Cibachrome/Ilfochrome color-positive photographic process, many believe Burkett to be the finest color darkroom master in the history of photography. His compositions capture and transport us into the pristine American landscape upon which he focuses his lens

      • Paul Caponigro
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Paul Caponigro,

        One of the major figures in the history of American landscape photography, Paul Caponigro has extended the spiritual genre of this medium to new, personal territory. Mystical and poetic, Caponigro’s philosophy has released a visual imagination that is possibly the most profound in contemporary photography.

      • William Garnett
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by William Garnett,

        Garnett’s work defies the stereotype of aerial photography as purely scientific and devoid of artistry. He became the first aerial photographer to earn the prestigious Guggenheim Award.

      • Michael Dweck
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Michael Dweck,

        Michael Dweck’s Mermaid series of photographs focuses on the liberated, modern Piscean woman.

      • Michael Gesinger

        Distinguished for his beautifully toned, individually hand-colored intimate portraits and nudes, Michael Gesinger reveals his mastery and classic craftsmanship of more than thirty years in traditional photography.

      • Rolfe Horn
        rolfe horn gelatin silver empty lot photograph

        Rolfe Horn’s early vintage prints reflect a dream like imagery and painstaking craftsmanship that culminated in three years (1998-2002) of assisting master photographer, Michael Kenna.

      • Kenro Izu
        14x20 inch Platinum-Cyanotype photograph by Kenro Izu,

        Kenro Izu’s photographs emanate a serene, meditative quality. Using 19th century photographic methods and recognized as one of the greatest living alternative process photographers, Izu’s exquisite series of Still Life, Nudes and Sacred Spaces capture the eye, heart, and spirit.

      • Michael Kenna
        michael kenna gelatin silver photograph white copse study 1

        Widely exhibited and published for over thirty years, Michael Kenna’s simple yet sophisticated black and white compositions feature exposures lasting up to ten hours that have been described as enigmatic, graceful and hauntingly beautiful.

      • Sean Kernan
        Gelatin Silver photograph by Sean Kernan,

        A book is not an isolated being – it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships. Sean Kernan extends this concept of Jorge Borges in his series entitled, “The Secret Books.” The Book becomes the starting point for a journey of inspiration and internal dialogue. You can find a universe in the pages of a book, if only you have the eyes to see.

      • Bob Kolbrener
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Bob Kolbrener,

        Kolbrener’s commitment to having a prepared mind, and Edwards Weston’s concept of “significant presentation,” allows Kolbrener to react quickly to changing light and weather events in places of swirling character, such as the Big Sur Coast and Yosemite.

      • Roman Loranc
        roman loranc absolution gelatin silver photograph

        Renowned as a conservationist in California’s Central Valley, Roman Loranc’s sepia and selenium split-toned gelatin silver photographs emanate an old-world romanticist view of a contemporary California landscape.

      • Michael Miner
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Michael Miner,

        Michael Miner has spent over thirty years as a cinematographer, screenwriter, and director of award-winning films. His love for the Monterey Peninsula and large format film photography is apparent in his serene yet striking black and white images.

      • Pedro Luis Raota
        pedro luis raota will I see them back gelatin silver photograph

        Ranked among the top ten photographers in the world during his lifetime, the photographs of Pedro Luis Raota possess an unmistakable and distinctive Latin American heart forged from a spirit of infinite tenderness, raw realism and deep humanity.

      • William Scott

        William Scott’s photography was kindled by childhood trips to Ireland which heightened his awareness of the abiding power of place and sense of the unknown. His mesmerizing photographs of the California Coast are some of his most sought-after images.

      • Robert B. Taylor
        robert b taylor twilight transitions photograph with signature

        Robert Taylor’s thirty years of devotion to working with an 8 x 10 view camera lovingly reflects his deep emotional connection to the rural farmlands of northern California, home to his family for four generations.

      • Alexey Titarenko
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Alexey Titarenko,

        Alexey Titarenko uses long exposures and the subtlety of his black-and-white cameos to endow the reality he confronts with a metaphysical dimension, timeless and introspective.

      • Jerry Uelsmann
        jerry uelsmann gelatin silver untitled 1994 surrealist tree

        The first true surrealist photographer, Jerry Uelsmann utilized multiple enlargers to create seamless photomontage compositions in the darkroom long before the invention of digital imaging and Photoshop.

      • Brett Weston
        Brett Weston photograph of the Canal, Netherlands, 1971.

        In 1925, long before photography was accepted as a ‘legitimate’ art form, Brett Weston embarked upon a remarkable career in fine art photography that would span nearly seven decades. His strong, graphic use of negative space coined the term “Weston Black,” and his compositional use of two-dimensional special layering predates David Hockney’s by over a decade.

      • Cole Weston
        Original Cibachrome photograph by Cole Weston,

        The fourth and youngest son of Edward Weston, Cole became the first of the Weston Legacy of photographers to embrace and explore color film photography.

      • Edward Weston

        Edward Weston was renowned as one of the greatest masters of 20th century photography. Awarded the first Guggenheim ever given to a photographer in 1937, his luminous images have influenced and inspired photographers around the world ever since.

      • Don Worth
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Don Worth,

        Don Worth photographed plant forms for over sixty years. His images have an incisive clarity and quiet meditative mood that reflects his profound affinity with the natural world. As Ansel Adams first full-time assistant in the 1950’s and a student of Minor White, Worth left a unique legacy that merged impeccable darkroom craft with heightened mystical sensibility.

    • Image Location
    • Medium
      • Alternative Process
        Original 14x20 inch Platinum-Palladium photograph by Kenro Izu,

        THE PLATINUM STANDARD

        Alternative process refers to various darkroom methods that existed prior to the invention of gelatin silver. These methods involve hand-coating heavyweight cotton rag papers or other materials (metal, glass, wood or even fabric) with light-sensitive chemistry and exposing them to direct sunlight and.or artificial UV light. Cyanotype, Platinum Palladium and Wet Plate Collodion are a few examples of alternative processes.

      • Cibachrome
        Original Cibachrome photograph by Christopher Burkett,

        ILFOCHROME CLASSIC

        Cibachrome, or lfochrome, is among the most stable of all color photographic processes. Each Cibachrome is composed of ten layers containing various combinations of light-sensitive silver halides and dyes that are sensitive to blue, green, or red light waves, which gives it an incredible depth and three-dimensional quality. In 2011, Cibachrome/Ilfochrome products were discontinued and it is now considered a historical process.

      • Gelatin Silver
        Original Gelatin Silver photograph by Ansel Adams,

        THE SILVER STANDARD

        The chosen medium of Ansel Adams, Weston and countless other iconic masters of photography, this is the most popular black and white darkroom process. Gelatin silver is an emulsion of light-sensitive silver salts in gelatin applied to a sheet of paper coated with a layer of baryta, a white pigment mixed with gelatin. The sensitized paper, generally fiber-based, is exposed to light through a negative and then made visible in a chemical reducing solution. Because the silver image is suspended in a gelatin emulsion that rests on a pigment-coated paper, gelatin silver can be sharply defined and highly detailed.

      • Polaroid

        THE INSTANT STANDARD

        The infamous instant film developed by Edwin H. Land that yielded a positive image, and depending on the type of Polaroid film (like Type-55), a negative as well. It was made as small as 24x36mm and as large as 20×24 inches. Joyce Tenneson, Chuck Close, Andy Warhol, William Wegman, Ansel Adams and Annie Liebowitz produced work with the 20×24 Polaroid before the film was discontinued in 2016.

    • Size
    • Subject
      • NEW ARRIVALS

        Featuring a selection of new releases from contemporary artsits, as well as noteworthy recent acquisitions and consignments from private collections.

      • Abstractions

        ABSTRACT & SURREALIST

        According to Brett Weston, “A true abstraction can be viewed from any hanging, including upside down.” Liberating for both the artist and viewer, abstractions allow for subjective interpretation. In a similar fashion, Jerry Uelsmann’s surrealist photography explores the dreamlike and bizarre aspects of life, for as he said, “The goal of the artist is not to resolve life’s mysteries, but to deepen them.”

      • Aerial

        A VIEW ABOVE

        Human beings have always been fascinated by the action and idea of flight. William Garnett (1916-2006), however, was the first to show us the beauty of flight. Using two 35mm cameras, one loaded with color film and the other with black and white, as well as a Pentax 6×7, he captured the American landscape from above, winning the first Guggenheim for aerial photography in 1953.

      • Animals

        ANIMALS

        “The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” – Charles Darwin

        Like a photograph, animals speak to us without words. They have captured our hearts and minds, many becoming our life-long companions and in some cases, muses we feel inspired to capture on film.

      • Architecture

        FRAMING THE FRAME

        Architectural photography is making art of art, framing the frame, paying homage to human creativity, line and design. This curated collection includes work by Morley Baer, Roman Loranc, Brett Weston, Ruth Bernhard and more.

      • Cityscapes

        A NEW YORK MINUTE

        Whether it’s the people, parks, skyscrapers or other historical landmarks, there is beauty to be found and a story to be told within every city block. From Brett Weston’s bridges to Roman Loranc’s cobblestone streets and Alexey Titarenko’s crowds, each photographer has their own unique way of capturing and immortalizing the cities in which they visit and live.

      • Figurative

        THE ETERNAL BODY

        “The human body is first and foremost a mirror to the soul and its greatest beauty comes from that.” – Auguste Rodin

        The human form has been depicted by painters and sculptors for centuries. Instead of a brush and chisel, photography draws with light and chemistry. From Ruth Bernhard’s classic torsos to Brett Weston’s electrifying underwater nudes, each artist in this collection captures the power and grace of our bodies.

      • Landscape

        THE NATURAL WORLD

        “We need the tonic of wildness… We can never have enough of nature.” – Henry David Thoreau

        From the dramatic Big Sur coastline to the majestic cliffs of Yosemite, the red rocks of Zion Canyon to the kaleidoscopic fall leaves in Virginia, the mystical misty rivers of Connecticut to the lakes of Lithuania, from heavy charcoal clouds to the light brush of fresh snow, each work in this collection emanates awe and admiration for the world around us.

      • Portrait

        FACES OF LIFE

        “Portraiture is not a simple subject. It is far more than physical likeness, or capturing a single human emotion. A great portrait also contains the ability to evoke that emotion in others, or empathy. A great portraitist gives us a glimpse into who that individual really is and what their life is like – their hopes and fears, strengths and weaknesses, where they have been, who they have loved and lost – all in a single frame.” – Julia Brett Christopher

      • Still Life

        MEDATIVE MOMENTS

        With the hustle and bustle of daily life racing along at a million miles per minute, we often need a moment to catch our breath and refocus. Be still, not just to smell the roses, but to see the veins in their petals; to notice the curves in a Nautilus shell following the same curve as a human hip, sunflowers and galaxies.

      • VINTAGE & EARLY

        When it comes to fine art photography, the term “vintage” has a very specific meaning. Specifically, a wet process work handmade by the artist within 1 and no more than 5 years of the negative date. The term “early” is often used to describe works where the exact date of creation is unknown or difficult to determine, but the tonal range and brighteners in the photographic paper are consistent with works made within 10 years of the negative date. A work can be “early” and not “vintage.”

        Vintage originals are in high demand by collectors due to their rarity and historical importance as the first works ever made from a negative.

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