Edward Weston’s Leaves of Grass

In 1941, famed Modernist photographer Edward Weston embarked upon an epic cross-country road trip to create what would become his last major body of work: a suite of photographs made to accompany a luxury edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Whereas Whitman considered his poems to be photographic, in that they presented a clear and truthful picture of his subjects, Weston wanted his photographs to be poetic – rather than simply illustrate Whitman’s text.

Weston’s photographs are presented in dialogue with recent acquisitions or lesser-known, never-before-exhibited works from the Center for Creative Photography’s permanent collection. The Heritage Gallery honors the Center’s founders while presenting a continuum of photographic practice across time.