Edward Weston and Johan Hagemeyer collection

Edward Weston was born in Highland Park, Illinois on March 24, 1886. Weston was given his first camera by his father at age 16, and enrolled at the Illinois College of Photography in 1908. Weston cleverly completed the 12-month program in just six months and never received a certificate. In 1909, Weston married his first wife, Flora Chandler. His first son, Edward Chandler (born in 1910), and his second son, Brett Weston (born in 1911), both became successful photographers in their own right. In 1911, Weston opened a portrait studio in Tropico (now Glendale), California. Weston’s early pictorial work transitioned into more abstract photographs by 1919. Weston began keeping daily records of his life, called Daybooks, in 1915 which were published in the 1960s. In 1923, Weston traveled to Mexico where he opened a studio with Tina Modotti. Many of his well-known photographs were taken during this time, including portraits and nudes. In the late 1920s, Weston opened two studios in California with Brett. Weston also co-founded Group f.64 in 1932. Weston was the first photographer to ever receive a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937, and he received a second one the next year. Weston used these funds to travel and photograph in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. Weston’s work for a special edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was cut short after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, when he returned to Carmel. Weston was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1945. From 1946 to 1955, Weston had two major retrospective exhibitions in New York and Paris, experimented with color photography, and worked on thousands of prints with Brett’s help. Weston died in 1958.

Johan Hagemeyer was born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1884. Hagemeyer originally worked at an insurance brokerage firm and was in the army for a year and a half before returning to school to study horticulture. Hagemeyer emigrated to California with two of his brothers who also possessed an interest in horticulture in 1911; however, Hagemeyer’s interest in photography led him to pursue photography once in the United States instead. Hagemeyer traveled in late 1916 to meet prominent photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who encouraged him to devote himself to photography. In 1917, Hagemeyer worked as an assistant at Martin’s Camera Store and McCullagh’s Studio, while also attending photo exhibitions. Hagemeyer opened a studio in 1922 in Carmel, California, a different studio in San Francisco in 1923, and eventually relocated to a larger studio in 1928 in Carmel. Hagemeyer held major exhibitions of Post-Impressionist artists and also displayed his own work at this studio. Throughout the 1920s and 1940s, Hagemeyer photographed notable portraits of people such as Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali. In 1947, Hagemeyer left Carmel and eventually settled in Berkeley where he died in 1962.