Through Another Lens: My Years With Edward Weston

by Charis Wilson, Wendy Madar

A memoir of the wife and model of photographer Edward Weston details their marriage and professional collaboration

Genres: Photography, Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction

376 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Helen Charis Wilson, most widely known as a subject of Edward Weston photographs, was a model and writer.

Reviews

[Krusher Basta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I devoured this book and am ready to go back to the beginning and start again. I am fascinated by the lives led by artists in the early part of the 20th century; writers and photographers in particular. So this book was an easy choice to try.

I am confident that if any photography enthusiast were to assemble a collection of the 100 greatest photographs of all time, there would be at least one Edward Weston and Charis Wilson would be the subject (there would certainly be more than one Edward Weston among the collection, and likely some of those would also feature Charis Wilson as the subject). To read the story behind the photographs and about their life together as told by Charis Wilson presents a truly unique and ideal perspective.

As I read her accounts of their years together I found myself, at times, at polar opposites regarding their lifestyle. I can admire the simplicity of it and the focus on the art Weston was creating. But can also be amazed by the depravity that they had to endure to survive with a sporadic income through the depression years. I am envious of the collaboration they shared both professionally and emotionally. But struck back at the thought of Charis Wilson sharing cramped quarters with Edward Weston and his sons. Sons from Weston’s current Marriage to Flora Chandler; sons who were who were the same age as Charis Wilson. Only late in their 14 years together did Weston divorce Flora and marry Charis. I am not judging. Weston and Wilson clearly were deeply in love, but man that had to be awkward.

This is certainly and honest biography. From describing their first time making love (she made the first move), to an admission of one homosexual experience, infidelity late in their relationship, and even when and how Weston preferred to defecate, she covers it all. The last item may have crossed the line over to TMI. However, these details give the impression that this memoir is truly unretouched, just like Weston’s prints.

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of an interesting life less than interestingly told.

I enjoyed the beginning and the end of the book, which were much more introspective and engaging. The middle, however, was largely a dry chronicle of photographic tours and visits with people whose names may or may not have retained their popular or artistic cache (though it's assumed throughout that the reader will understand both their relationship to the Westons and their historical importance).

I'm glad I read it, but I'm disappointed because I also wanted to love it.

[Grover Cleveland · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I am fascinated with the early photographers of the 20th century, Edward Weston and his many loves naturally interested me. Charis was the last of Edward's many lovers and his second wife. She was his model and is featured in most of his nudes.
She chronicles his life and career in the thirtiess and forties in a rather colorless tone, although there are many moments of brilliant observations about love and life.
For any student of Weston this book is a must read.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I should do a real review of this interesting and memorable memoir. Charis kept the records in her travels with Edward for his Guggenheim fellowships in the 1930s. She obviously got in the habit of keeping notes. When the marriage ended, her subsequent life wasn't particularly interesting, so you could safely stop there. But her years with Weston are well worth reading about. A good review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nevenka Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this fascinating memoir of Helen Charis Wilson's years with Edward Weston, celebrated California photographer, one is taken on a journey of romantic secret trists of the beginning her relationship with him to their grindingly hard travel work of collecting California scenes and sites for a grant photographing for the Guggenheim in New York in the years 1937 - 1938. Charis came from a creative family and found her way pretty quickly and smoothly in spite of economic poverty to a world of artists, designers, photographers and writers. Though I wish the photos discussed were paired with the text as she describes them, it makes me think the book bears a second and third read-through with some research into the book they compiled for the Guggenheim: California and the West by Edward Weston and Charis Wilson. I was drawn to her work when I inherited a painting of Charis Wilson's House by L.R. Horton given as a gift to my friend Sharon Lawrence, who personally knew Charis Wilson and another friend of hers, artist Jeanne Kellogg from the Carmel-by-the-Sea, California area where Charis spent her early years. (and later years). Sybil, librarian, artist, children's book author

[Teresa Marenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Granted, it's in parts a bit lenghty, and it definitely helps if you're interested in photography. But more than account of life with a famous photographer, this book stood out because of the woman writing it. Her voice and sense of self was what really kept me reading. These two were a very modern couple in many ways, and her account of their trips through California, their homelife in a simple cabin, the friendships and merry evenings with friends... All of this was very well and vividly described, so I really felt transported back into their life in the 1930s and 1940s.

[Hadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story! For anyone interested in learning more about Weston's life or about the woman who inspired him. She is a strong, complicated and compelling character. His success is seen through her eyes. We are allowed a rare glimpse into her experiences and personal journey as the wife of a renowned photographer.

[Iniville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-written memoir of a lover of Weston's.

[reading is my hustle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elegant, simple, shadow, and light.