Baja California

Brett Weston first picked up a camera in Mexico as a fourteen-year-old when he spent several months there with his father Edward in 1924, and "Baja California", made between 1964 and 1967, demonstrates his love of Mexico and its unique light and natural forms. The Baja portfolio has no text or picture titles and no predetermined order, but the pictures in this portfolio, like those that came before and after it, were carefully selected from hundreds of photographs for their variety and continuity: Baja contains four relatively deep-space landscapes with horizons, one medium close-up, and several relatively flat and abstract close-ups of sand, rocks, water, and plants. The term "lyric" is usually understood to refer to poetry that is meant to be sung out loud, but it can also be applied to artworks in any medium that have musical or rhythmic qualities. These photographs are the most "lyrical" group Brett had created to date, and they pulsate with joyful, organic rhythms.