Platinum, 28 x 35 cm, 1936

Charis Wilson, the model for this series, admitted to being shocked upon seeing Weston's nudes for the first time, as she had previously known only the romantically retouched photographs of depilated bodies then popular. In studying Weston's work she found, "I couldn't get past the simple amazement at how real they were. Then I began to see the rhythmic patterns, the intensely perceived sculptural forms, the subtle modulations of tone, of which these small, perfect images were composed. And I began to appreciate the originality of the viewpoint that had selected just these transitory moments and made them fast against the current of time."