Footprints of the Gods: The Point Lobos Saga

Fifty-five color plates depict the human and animal forms that manifest themselves in the rocky landscape of Point Lobos on the Northern California coast. Point Lobos, as Hughes ( Shadow and Substance ) notes, ``has become so synonymous with Edward Weston that a beach there bears the legendary photographer's name.'' French photographer Clergue's ( Eros and Thanatos ) pictures, which he shot over a 12-year period, are a color homage to Weston's all-over sharp-focus technique and to Weston's intense feelings for the area. Here we see craggy cliffs that suggest a man's profile; lips of rock; and bas-relief genitalia, breasts, buttocks, partial torsos and reclining figures. Also emerging from the smooth, sea-washed stone are elephants, lizards and manatees, and leering skulls and death masks. In several photographs that stray from rocks and cliffs, an ocean of kelp resembles a clear night's sky. (Sept.)