of smokestacks. The following year, Weston moved to Mexico where he continued to experiment with 'straight photography' in a series of nude studies of Tina Modotti, his lover and collaborator over the next few years. Modotti introduced him to the artists Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco who influenced Weston to develop his modernist style. In the later 1920s and 30s Weston worked on his well-known series of close-up still lifes which included abstract, formally precise images of shells, peppers and artichokes and other natural forms. Photographing on a large format camera with exposures of up to four hours and with only natural light, Weston's preoccupation with form and pattern is also evident in his nude studies (particularly of his second wife Charis Wilson) and in his landscapes. In 1937, Weston embarked on a period of sustained work on the American West enabled by the award of a Guggenheim grant - the first ever awarded to a photographer. Weston continued to concentrate on broad, dramatic landscapes towards the end of his life and took his last photographs at Point Lobos in 1948, two years after developing Parkinson's Disease. Edward Weston died at home on January 1, 1958. The essay by Amy Conger concentrates on the relationship between Edward Weston's nudes and his work in other genres (particularly the still-life). Throughout the book, the juxtaposition of Weston's still-lifes and landscapes with his various nude studies highlights the continuities which are evident in Weston's photography - regardless of the subject matter -