Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles

Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Cloth, x, 382 pages, illustrations, portraits; 26 cm. Tight, clean copy. Dust jacket, with light edgewear, protected in a mylar cover. "This captivating biography reveals the previously untold love story of Edward Weston and Margrethe Mather. Both were photographic artists at the center of the bohemian cultural scene in Los Angeles during the 1910s and 1920s, yet Weston would become a major Modernist photographer while Mather, who Weston ultimately expunged from his journals, would fall into obscurity. The book reveals how they and their entourage sought out the limelight as the Hollywood film industry came of age. Based on ten years of research and illustrated with extraordinary images, some never published, this history has a captivating range of characters, including Charlie Chaplin, Imogen Cunningham, Max Eastman, Emma Goldman, Tina Modotti, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Carl Sandburg. The lively text brings to life the ambiance of this exciting time in Los Angeles history as well as its darker side. Artful Lives exceeds any previously published account of this key period in Weston's development and reveals Mather's important contribution to it, making it an essential reference in Weston studies." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Prologue; Edward Weston--A Midwestern upbringing, 1886-1905; Weston takes on Tropico, 1906-1912; Margrethe Mather--an inauspicious start, 1886-1912; The City of the Angels, 1850-1913; Getting established, early 1913; Getting acquainted, late 1913 to 1914; Challenges, 1915; Outside influences, 1916; The tide turns, 1917; War and pestilence, 1918; Exhilaration, 1919; Seeking acclaim, 1920; Fame and angst, 1921; Tragedies and triumphs, 1922; Endings and beginnings, 1923; Epilogue; Afterword.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. 4to. Collectible.