EDWARD WESTON | SHELLS (3S)

This photograph was acquired the year that it was made by Euliel Ballenger White, a teacher at Columbus Elementary School in Glendale, California. It was through Flora Weston, the photographer's first wife and a fellow teacher, that White acquired this print. A note from Weston to Flora that accompanies this print reads, ‘Here is print for Euliel – It is not one of the imperfect “extras” – Sorry I could not give her a choice. I have few of the shells printed.’  

Prints of this early shell study, on velvety matte-surface paper, are rare and the negative (3S) is not recorded in Conger. The photographer’s negative log, now in the collection of the Center, suggests that Weston made only 3 prints of this image, one of which he destroyed.