Oak, Monterey County

February 1927

Meets Henrietta Shore

The Canadian painter Henrietta Shore, whom he asks to comment on the photographs of Wardell, gives an honest critique that surprises him: he is making too many nudes, is getting used to them, and the subject no longer amazes him. Intrigued by her large paintings of sea shells, he borrows several from her, hoping to find inspiration for a new series of still lifes.

1927

A major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor

In September he has a major exhibition at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

1927

Meets Willard Van Dyke

At the opening of the show he meets the photographer Willard Van Dyke, who later introduces him to Ansel Adams.

1928

The Mojave Desert: his first landscapes as art

A brief but important trip with Brett to the Mojave Desert, where he first explores and photographs landscape as an art form. The stark rock forms and empty spaces are a visual revelation to him; over a long weekend he takes twenty-seven photographs and declares in his journal that these negatives are the most important he has ever done.

1929

Regular trips to Point Lobos

He starts making regular trips to nearby Point Lobos, where he will continue to photograph until the end of his career; there he learns to fine-tune his vision to the visual space of his view camera, and the images he takes there, of kelp, rocks and wind-blown trees, are among his finest.

1930–1931

A series of one-man exhibitions, 1930–1931

The first is at Alma Reed’s Delphic Studio Gallery in New York, followed closely by the same show at the Denny Watrous Gallery in Carmel; both receive rave reviews, including a two-page article in the New York Times Magazine. Shows at the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Galerie Jean Naert in Paris follow.