Edward Weston 1886-1958

This photograph is one from a collection of "Project prints" originally owned by Jacob Zeitlin, which was acquired by Lee Witkin in 1975. Zeitlin, a Los Angeles-based bookseller and publisher was a proponent of Edward Weston's art, and was one of the first people to exhibit his photographs at his Downtown LA bookstore.

Sybil Anikeef was born Marie Augusta Philipson on March 29, 1869 in Chicago. Anikeef was an accomplished photographer involved with the Federal Art Project. She is best known for her portrayal of the Monterey Peninsula comprising modernist still lives, landscapes, and portraits of fisherman. Anikeeff became a student of Edward Weston after the two met in the early 1920s and his influence on Anikeeff's work is apparent, from subject matter to compositional approach. The pair maintained a close relationship, continuing to photograph each other for many subsequent years. A selection of her photographs were published in the book, Monterey Peninsula, compiled by the Work Projects Administration in Northern California, 1941. Anikeeff had a storied past as her mother passed at an early age and she was subsequently raised by her grandparents in a Theosophical community (a neo-Western esoteric school) in California. Sybil Anikeef’s name is derived from her first husband’s surname and her grandmother’s forename. Anikeef died in Chicago in 1997.