WASHINGTON, DC.-Although Brett Weston was considered a key player in the photography world during his lifetime, his achievements have been overshadowed by those of his renowned father, Edward. In the first major exhibition in 30 years to be exclusively dedicated to Brett’s prolific body of work, Brett Weston: Out of the Shadow concentrates on the photographer’s distinct creative spirit. On view through Sept. 7, 2008, the exhibition features more than 100 photographs from the 1920s through the 1980s. It is the first retrospective of the artist’s work ever to be presented in Washington, D.C.

Out of the Shadow focuses attention on Brett’s abstract black-and-white photographs of landscapes, shapes and textures, and architectural elements. A pioneer in his field, Brett captured the intricacies and rhythms of form, light, and shadow while avoiding photographic techniques such as contrived lighting, staging, or other manipulation.

“The Brett Weston exhibition is a natural extension of our interest in and support of 20th-century photography,” said Dorothy Kosinski, director of The Phillips Collection.

“The museum has presented two Edward Weston exhibitions, and we are eager to bring Brett’s work to wider public attention.”

Aside from two series taken in San Francisco in the 1930s and New York in the 1940s, and abstract images of painted walls, broken glass, and cars, Brett focused on aspects of the natural world, in both close-ups and big views. Although all of his photographs seem to have been taken outdoors, Brett did not consider himself a nature photographer. Many of his most beautiful and accomplished images are associated with water—ice, clouds, ocean, underwater nudes, wet kelp, wet stones, puddles, beads of moisture, bubbles. His sensual black-and-white images transformed quiet moments into powerful statements of bold abstractions. From the rocks of Pebble Beach (1980) that shimmer as if made from mercury, to the sand and horizon in White Sands New Mexico (1945) that appear so stark they seem joined as one, Brett built his oeuvre by pushing the limits of vivid black-and-white contrasts.