When Brett Weston invited the press to his 80th birthday party on December 16, 1991 in Carmel, California, he said he would burn his negatives as part of the celebration. Dianne Nilsen came up from the Center of Creative Photography in Tucson, with the hope of changing his mind.
“The day before the party, Brett and his brother Cole had hosed down 1,500 of Brett’s early negatives in a garbage pail,” says Nilsen. “They chose 12 negatives to save. Cole had used a paper punch to put a hole in each corner and with a grease pencil wrote ‘No Prints’ across each one.” Nilsen asked Weston’s permission to catalogue the emulsion codes notched on the edges of the remaining film.
“On his birthday, I began to log in the emulsion codes as Brett started to burn his work in the fireplace,” says Nilsen, “Pleading that I could not keep up with him, I said, ‘Brett, do you have to destroy them all today?’
“’Well, no, honey, I don’t,’ he answered and stopped.”
After the party and after giving Nilsen permission to return to Arizona with 50 undamaged 8 x 10s, a dozen 11 x 14s and a Ziploc freezer bag of ashes, Weston left for his house in Hawaii. He did not continue the destruction of his negatives before his death in January, 1993.
John Loengard
John Loengard, Celebrating the Negative is available to museums as a touring exhibition from Curatorial Assistance.
http://www.curatorial.org/traveling-exhibitions#/johnloengard/
Celebrating the Negative, by John Loengard
Released in 1994
Published by Arcade Publishing
