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Civilian defense

Photograph
1942 (photographed), c.1980 (printed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Black and white photograph of a reclining nude female wearing a gas mask, with her legs crossed, positioned in front of a palm branch.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleCivilian defense (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gelatin silver print
Brief description
Photograph by Edward Weston, 'Civilian Defense', gelatin silver print, 1942
Physical description
Black and white photograph of a reclining nude female wearing a gas mask, with her legs crossed, positioned in front of a palm branch.
Dimensions
  • Sheet length: 32.7cm
  • Sheet width: 26cm
Style
Gallery label
  • Gallery 100, 2016-17: Edward Weston (1886–1958) ‘Civilian Defense’ 1942 After the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, American photographer Edward Weston was posted as an air-raid warden. In this image he photographed his wife wearing her government-issued gas mask and posing beside the palm of peace. The traditional artists’ subject of the reclining female nude is compromised by wartime necessity. Gelatin silver print Museum no. Ph.2321-1980
  • Unspecified exhibition label: Weston began a new series of works in 1942. Following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, Weston became an air-raid warden at Point Lobos, formerly his favourite photographic site. Californians were equipped with gas-masks in preparation for enemy attack. This tableau, sometimes called Victory, shows Weston's wife Charis nude on a couch wearing a gas mask and accompanied by the palm of peace: the classic artistic subject of the nude comprised by wartime necessity and rhetoric. He wrote of this as 'one of the great photographs on which I will stake my reputation'.
Subjects depicted
Collection
Accession number
PH.2321-1980

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Record createdSeptember 7, 2007
Record URL
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