Springtime

28 May 1941

The trip to illustrate Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”

Just as the Guggenheim money is running out, Weston is invited to illustrate a new edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”: $1,000 for the photographs and $500 for travel expenses. He insists on artistic control and refuses to make literal illustrations of Whitman’s text. On 28 May he and Wilson set out on a trip that will cover 20,000 miles through 24 states; he takes between 700 and 800 8×10 negatives as well as dozens of Graflex portraits.

1941

Point Lobos closed: the cats of Wildcat Hill

Because of the war Point Lobos is closed to the public for several years. Weston keeps working on Wildcat Hill, photographing among other things the many cats that live there, with the same serious intent he gives to all his other subjects.

7 December 1941

Pearl Harbor finds him near the end of the trip

On 7 December 1941 Pearl Harbor is attacked and the United States enters the Second World War. Weston, near the end of the Whitman trip, is deeply affected by the outbreak of war. He writes that when war broke out they scurried home: Charis did not want to scurry, he did.

early 1942

Whitman-trip negatives: forty-nine selected

Weston spends the first months of 1942 organising and printing the negatives from the Whitman trip. Of the hundreds of images, forty-nine are selected for publication.

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.