Clouds, Santa Monica

early 1934

Meets Charis Wilson at a concert

Meeting Charis Wilson at a concert, he is immediately captivated by her beauty and personality, even more than with his previous lovers; a new and important chapter opens in his life. He writes that a new and most beautiful love has come into his life, one that he believes will stand the test of time.

1934

Stops writing his Daybooks

Perhaps because of the intensity of his new relationship, he stops writing in his Daybooks, and six months later makes one final entry, looking back from 22 April: Charis, he writes, may be remembered as the great love of his life.

April – May 1934

Asks Noskowiak to move out

He is still living with Noskowiak, but within two weeks he asks her to move out, declaring that other women are for him “as inevitable as the tides”.

August 1935

Charis Wilson agrees to live with him

Weston had implored Charis Wilson to come and live with him, and in August 1935 she finally agrees. Of all the women he has lived with since Flora, she is the first with no interest in becoming a photographer; this lets him concentrate on her as his muse and model, while Wilson devotes her time to promoting his art as his assistant and quasi-agent.

22 March 1937

News of the Guggenheim grant: two thousand dollars

On 22 March 1937 Weston learns he has been awarded a Guggenheim grant, the first ever given to a photographer: $2,000 for one year, a significant sum at the time. He capitalises on it further by arranging to supply the editor of AAA Westway Magazine with 8–10 photographs a month for $50 during their travels, with Wilson earning another $15 a month for captions and short narratives. They buy a new car and set out on Weston’s dream trip to photograph whatever he wants.

1937–1939

Nearly 1,400 negatives in two years on the fellowship

The first photographer to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship, he produces nearly 1,400 negatives over the next two years with his 8 × 10 view camera.