2002.41.1

People frequently ask whether it was Chandler [Weston], Brett [Weston], Willard Van Dyke, or Galka Scheyer who introduced Edward to the dunes at Oceano. Evidence shows that they all took or were given credit at one time or another. Chandler and Brett were cited for this introduction at the 100th Anniversary symposium at Carmel in 1986 in honor of Weston's birthday. Willard stated that he had photographed the dunes before Weston had, but he pointed out that Edward did it better. On the verso of a print . . . now at the Norton Simon Museum, Weston thanked Galka for first telling him about the dunes. But sand dunes were already recorded on film by 1924 with the release of the movie Thief of Baghdad; its stunning dune scenes surely would have impressed such a visually oriented filmgoer as Weston. Edward could also have seen the dunes at Oceano from the train traveling to or from San Francisco or Salinas. In late 1933 the first issue of a thin magazine called "Dune Forum" was published in Oceano, with a photograph of dunes by Chandler Weston on the cover. Edward's friend, Pauline Schindler, was one of the editors and its list of supporters included a number of Carmel's avant-garde who Weston photographed and associated with: the painter John O'Shea, the poet Robinson Jeffers, the writer Mabel Dodge Luhan, the composer Henry Cowell, and the folklorist Ella Young. The cover of the mid-January 1934 issue reproduced a juniper detail by Brett Weston. The issue also included a quick discussion of nudism and the good of Stalinism, and then a paragraph praising the photographic accomplishments of Edward and his sons. The cover of the next issue a month later showed a picture of the dunes by Willard Van Dyke, who they claimed Edward called a "coming genius." In February 1934, "Westways," the magazine of the California Automobile Club, published an article by Pauline Schindler on the Oceano dunes. Photographs by pictorial photographer Ernest M. Pratt accompanied the article that implied the dunes were known and visited by the avant-garde of Carmel. Weston recorded only five negatives in his log from 1934 of dunes or sand erosions from Oceano (as opposed to forty-eight from 1936). Located near San Luis Obispo and Pismo beach, Oceano was about halfway between Carmel and Los Angeles. Between January and March, Weston was in Los Angeles at least twice because he was employed by the Public Works of Art Project until his resignation on April 2. Although a PWAP print of this image was acquired by the Los Angeles Public Library on June 21, 1934, all five of these were probably taken before April. This composition is marked by a special attention to texture and by several sharp-edged, almost knife-like forms [Amy Conger, "Edward Weston: Photographs," figures 797 and 798].