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