The famous photographer, and his illicit love affair
When Margrethe Mather walked into Edward Weston’s photography studio in an LA neighborhood then called Tropico a hundred years ago, both their lives changed. Mather became the photographer’s muse. At…
By Lisa Napoli • • 1 min read(L) Edward Weston, 1921 (R) Margrethe Mather, ca. 1913
When Margrethe Mather walked inEdward Weston’s photography studio in an LA neighborhood then called Tropico a hundred years ago, both their lives changed.
Mather became the photographer’s muse. At the time Weston was married (to a relative of the Chandler family) and produced four children with his wife while he conducted what he considered the most important relationship of his life with Mather.
But then Weston left Mather and headed to Mexico with another woman, and he burned all the evidence of their relationship.
Former Sotheby’s photography department director Beth Gates Warren spent ten years of her life reconstructing the Mather period of Weston’s life, which happened also to be a rich one at the dawn of Hollywood. The resulting book is called “Artful Lives; Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles.”
On Saturday, she’ll show slides and talk at the LA Public Library downtown (where she did much of her research) at a neat, ongoing series called Photo Friends. We asked her to talk with us in advance of that appearance.
2pm Saturday September 14th, Central Library, admission free