From the Afterword by Roger Aikin:

"In 1951, Brett Weston began printing Edward's 50th Anniversary Portfolio, which was an attempt to raise money for his ailing father whose Parkinson's disease precluded Edward working in the darkroom. This was an exceptional act of devotion, as he was willing to put his own career on hold while doing this.

Because money was tight for both Westons at this time, Brett produced a small portfolio, the "Special Edition 1951" in an attempt to sell prints of his own. The portfolio included five 8x10-inch contact prints, each of which was priced at only six dollars—an astounding figure from today's perspective."

This volume also contains "A Remembrance" by photographer Michael A. Smith who spent time photographing with Brett and is also, along with photographer Paula Chamlee, publisher of this series. The "Career Overview" is an insightful and scholarly biography by art historian Roger Aikin who also knew and admired Brett Weston.

THE PORTFOLIOS OF BRETT WESTON

A NINETEEN-VOLUME SERIES

Between 1939 and 1980 Brett Weston produced eighteen limited edition portfolios of original photographs. He believed passionately in the power of his original prints and chose the portfolio as the way to reach an expanded audience while still maintaining control over image quality. Today, Weston's original portfolios are rare, expensive, and relatively inaccessible in museums, archives, libraries, or private collections. Many of the photographs in these new books have never before been reproduced. Published in a hardbound edition limited to 250 numbered copies. The softbound edition is limited to 1000 copies, and books are available individually or by subscription.

Printing technology now makes it possible, however, to bring the Brett Weston portfolios to a larger audience in reproductions that, in their rich detail, tonal scale and color, surface quality, and aesthetic appeal, are almost indistinguishable from the original prints. Printed in Belgium by Salto in 600-line screen quadtone on heavy coated stock, the photographs have been reproduced actual size whenever possible.

To recreate the feeling of the original portfolios, great care has been taken not only with the reproduction of the photographs, but with every aspect of these books. Where there is text in the portfolios, it is reproduced in facsimile, and the color of each book's cover has been selected to match the covers of the original portfolio cases.

The art historian Roger Aikin, a close friend of Brett's, has provided an introductory essay for each book in the series, writing that sets the photographs in the context of Weston's life and career. Dr. Aikin's critical analysis comparing the photographs of Brett and those of his father, published in 1973, remains the finest analysis of its type we have ever seen.