North Dome, Point Lobos

1945

First symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

The year 1945 marks the beginning of significant changes: Weston begins to experience the first symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating ailment that will gradually steal his strength and his ability to photograph. He withdraws from Wilson, who is becoming more involved in local politics and the Carmel cultural scene.

until February 1946

Separation from Charis Wilson

A strength that once brought them together — her lack of interest in becoming a photographer herself — eventually leads to their break-up. While he is working on a major retrospective for the Museum of Modern Art they separate; Weston returns to Glendale, since the land under their cabin on Wildcat Hill still belongs to Wilson’s father. Within a few months she moves out and arranges to sell the property to him. She later wrote that her flight from Edward was partly an escape from photography, which had taken up so much room in her life.

1946

Colour work for Kodak on Kodachrome

In 1946 Dr. George L. Waters of Kodak asks Weston to produce 8×10 Kodachrome transparencies for an advertising campaign. He has never worked in colour before, chiefly because he had no means of developing or printing the more complicated process, but he accepts, not least because Kodak offers $250 per image — the highest sum he will be paid for any single work in his lifetime. He eventually sells Kodak seven colour works of landscapes and scenery at Point Lobos and Monterey harbour, and over the next two years makes at least sixty 8×10 colour images.

February 1946

Retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art

In February 1946 Weston’s major retrospective opens at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He and Beaumont Newhall select 313 prints, and eventually 250 photographs are displayed along with 11 negatives. Many of his prints are still for sale at the time, and he sells 97 prints from the show at $25 each.

1947

Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease

He is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and soon stops photographing; he spends the remaining ten years of his life overseeing the printing of more than 1,000 of his most famous images.

1947

Meets Dody Thompson, his future assistant

As his Parkinson’s disease progresses, Weston begins looking for an assistant. By happy chance an eager young photography enthusiast, Dody Weston Thompson, contacts him in search of work; he mentions he had just that morning written to Ansel Adams, looking for someone who would learn photography in exchange for carrying his bulky large-format camera and providing a much-needed automobile. There is a swift meeting of creative minds: for the rest of 1947 and into early 1948 Dody commutes from San Francisco at weekends to learn the basics of photography from Weston.