Brett Weston

mounted, signed and dated by the photographer in pencil on the mount, matted, 1934

The photographer to his aunt, Mary Weston Seaman

By descent to her daughter, Jeannette Seaman

By descent to her nephew, John W. Longstreth

Other prints of this image:

Beaumont Newhall, Brett Weston: Voyage of the Eye (Aperture, 1975), p. 96

Brett Weston: Master Photographer (Carmel, 1989), pl. 2

Katherine Ware and Peter Barbarie, Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2006, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 95

This early print, on paper with a surface sheen and on a thin white mount that is slick on both sides, is in generally very good to excellent condition. In raking light, 4 small raised areas, or bumps, which likely occurred during mounting, are visible on the surface, as well as tiny indentations and hairline scratches that are barely discernable and do not break the emulsion. There is faint silvering in the dark areas of the print. There is some age-darkening of the mount, particularly at the edges. The corners are bumped, and there is a chip in the top paper ply at the lower edge and at the lower right corner. On the reverse of the mount, there is chipping of the top paper ply at the lower edge.
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Taken in 1932, while Brett Weston was living in Santa Barbara, this sharply-focused study of a cactus reflects his sensitivity to form, texture, and the play of light and shadow on surfaces.  Some of his earliest photographic experiments had been similarly focused on the centrally-framed details of plants.

Another print of this image of a prickly cactus was acquired in the 1930s by the dealer Julien Levy, famous for his collection of Surrealist and avant-garde photography.  Levy had been interested in showing Edward Weston's work, but in one of his letters he inquired about the possibility of representing Brett as well:  'I . . . wish you all success.  As I said, I think you have vision' (quoted in Dreaming in Black and White: Photography at the Julien Levy Gallery, p. 94).   In 1935, Levy mounted a one-man show of Brett Weston's work at his gallery on Madison Avenue. 

This photograph exemplifies what Levy must have viewed as a close alignment between Brett Weston's work and that of the New Objectivity photographers in Germany.   His print of the cactus is now a part of The Lynne and Harold Honickman Gift of the Julien Levy Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.