Cole Weston

Cole Weston (January 30, 1919 – April 20, 2003) was photographer Edward Weston's fourth and youngest son. Although Weston "was born into the tradition of craftsman-produced black-and-white art photography, he was to find his own photographic direction in colour."

Cole Weston's life followed a diverse course that started with theater, later leading him to the Navy, a position photographing for Life, Cole served in the United States Navy during World War II as a welder and photographer

Assisting Edward Weston and discovering color (1946–1958) Upon his discharge from the navy, Cole started photographing for Life in Southern California. At the same time, Edward became increasingly crippled by Parkinson's disease and wrote to Cole asking for his help with the printing of his negatives; and so, in 1946, Cole and his wife moved to Carmel to help his ailing father in his darkroom and studio.

At the time, Eastman Kodak sent their new color films Kodachrome and Ektachrome to Edward because they wanted him to "photograph Point Lobos in color" to which Edward responded: "Well, I don’t know anything about color, but I know Point Lobos better than any man alive".

"I’m a color photographer. That’s what I do. Whether you like it or not, that’s what I do. There is nothing wrong with black and white, but I am into color. And I like it!" Weston worked with the Forest Theater Guild for 50 years in which he directed more than 30 plays and was involved with the physical construction of the Indoor Forest Theater (a small theater beneath the outdoor stage) "hauling in the concrete and other building materials himself".

Edward Weston's negatives and the Cole Weston Trust In his will, Edward Weston left his negatives to Cole, who printed them for more than 30 years. On September 30, 2014, a collection of 548 prints from Edward's negatives, printed posthumously by Cole, was auctioned by Sotheby's in New York.

Publications 1981 – Cole Weston, eighteen photographs 1998 – Cole Weston: At Home and Abroad 1991 – Cole Weston, fifty years 1995 – Not Man Apart: Photographs of the Big Sur Coast 2000 – Laughing Eyes: A Book of Letters Between Edward and Cole Weston, 1923–1946