Hi Alan, thanks for posting the link.
There is a reason for not having seen some of these photographs. Weston was under contract with the Limited Edition Book Club to produce 54 photographs to illustrate the Whitman book. The salary was $1,000 plus $500 for travel expenses.
Being under contract, Weston knew that he would lose personal use due to copyright. So, whenever he thought that he might want to exhibit or sell an image later, he made slight compositional changes and made another negative. In the photograph shown here of Mr. & Mrs. W.P. Fry, the published, and elsewhere exhibited image, is very slightly different; in this case, Mrs. Fry's hands are in a different position as is Mr. Fry's cane. Thus, copyright infringement has been avoided. In the case of landscapes, the shifting clouds, such as in the Gulf Oil series, were deemed enough to avoid copyright problems. The trick was to know which images would be chosen for the book. Weston was somewhat in control here, as the contract called for only the 54. Some of these he had not been clever enough to alter slightly, thus they only appear in the book, not in the Edward Weston archive. Hope this makes sense, but indeed there are some Weston's that only appear in the Whitman book.
Approximately 750 negatives (8x10) were made on the nine month, 25,000 mile trip. He also made a number of 4x5 portraits.
Thanks Merg, It is great that we have your first hand knowledge about subjects just like this. $1000 for 54 Weston photographs, what a deal. I don't believe I've seen any of his work in White Sands, NM before. I hope you are still contemplating your book.
I wish there was a link to all of them or, better yet, I wish I could see them in person. Thanks for posting this.
Even with gas at 20 cents a gallon, and 8x10 film at 25 cents a sheet, he didn't get rich from the Whitman project! However, sales of the personal work done on the trip were quite good.
You are right, the White Sands work is seldom exhibited. He spent a couple of days photographing at White Sands. The work is very different from the earlier Oceano work, more horizon and sky, devoid of strong form. Of course, different dunes and different quality of light.
Nice. Stuff you'll never see again.
Walker Evans would have made a better fit for the Whitman project.
Thomas
Whitman? Evans is Faulkner’s man. And Steinbeck’s.
Whitman is too large for any photographer, including Weston.
But this show must be seen.
Perhaps, although it is possible that neither he nor Weston could have delivered what George Macy (director of the LEBC) envisioned. He commissioned Weston to "illustrate" Leaves of Grass.
However, in a letter to Beaumont Newhall before departure, Weston conveyed a different interpretation of the assignment. He wrote: "There will be no attempt to illustrate, no symbolism except perhaps in a very broad sense, no effort to recapture Whitman's day. The reproductions will have no titles, no captions. This leaves me great freedom -- I can use anything from an airplane to a longshoreman."
We have the results from Weston, and certainly his vision on the Whitman trip was a departure from earlier work. Whether he was the best choice for the assignment, is simply conjecture.
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