Edward Weston

mounted, initialed, dated, and inscribed with a copyright symbol by the photographer in pencil on the mount, titled, numbered (partially obscured), and inscribed with the Limited Editions Club copyright by him and numbered in unidentified hands in pencil and with a typed label, quoting Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, on the reverse, matted, 1941 

The photographer to his sister, Mary Weston Seaman

By descent to her daughter, Jeannette Seaman

By descent to her nephew, John W. Longstreth

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister, January - March 1978, and traveling to:

New York, International Center of Photography, July - September 1978

The Oakland Museum, February - March 1979

The Dayton Art Institute, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life, February - July 2004, and traveling to:

Oregon, Portland Art Museum, September - November 2004

Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum, January - April 2005; and

Rochester, George Eastman House, April - September 2005

This print:

Kathy Kelsey Foley, Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister (The Dayton Art Institute, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 55

Alexander Lee Nyerges, Edward Weston: A Photographer's Love of Life (The Dayton Art Institute, 2004, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 66

Another print of this image:

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, with illustrations by Edward Weston, the Paddington Press reprint of the 1942 Limited Editions Club edition (New York, 1970), facing p. 18

This photograph, on slightly cool, semi-matte paper, is in generally good condition. There is a faint patina of silvering in the darkest areas of the print, a typical indication of the photograph's age. As for any print whose primary purpose was at one time publication, the surface shows scattered imperfections, including occasional indentations largely visible only in raking light. When viewing the photograph from a close distance, the top left edge, in the sky area, has lightly discolored. There are a few minor chips along the bottom edge of the print. The photograph is on a heavy-weight, cream-colored mount that has darkened with age. On the reverse, along one vertical edge, there are the remains of paper and adhesive, likely from a sheet of paper overlay that was at one time attached. There is also a paper remnant along the bottom edge, on the reverse, where a caption may have been attached. Portions of two old linen hinges on the reverse cover the photographer's negative number and part of the typed label. The negative number reads '1W P.' It is likely that the covered portion of the negative number is an additional number, which would be consistent with the numbering of other prints from the 'Leaves of Grass' series.
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The label reads:

'Song of Myself:

'#6)  ((What is the grass?))

'"And now it seems to be the beautiful uncut hair of graves.....................................W'

Weston and Charis Wilson arrived in New Orleans on 8 August 1941.  While in New Orleans, a friend had arranged for Weston to be introduced to local photographer Clarence John Laughlin.  Through Laughlin, he met Don and Bea Pendergast, who offered to show Weston and Charis the sites, including several New Orleans cemeteries.  These 'Cities of the Dead' have a very distinct character due to the fact that the city sits some four feet below sea level.   As a result, the dead are placed in above-ground, white-washed tombs, often topped with crosses, and lined up horizontally or stacked in small buildings that resemble Greek temples.  Charis spoke of their experience some years later: 'The New Orleans Cities of the Dead exhibited a nicely accepting attitude toward death that appealed to Edward enormously—he felt very much at home' (Through Another Lens, p. 260).  This image corresponds to another photograph, a closer view, taken the same day in St. Bernard Cemetery (Conger 1594). 

This image was published in the Leaves of Grass volume.  At the time of this writing, no other print of this image has been located.