20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com With the revival of MPC’s photography department and expanding annual PhotoCarmel festivities, the state of photography in Monterey County is strong. By Agata Popęda ON CAMERA Wynn Bullock, one of the icons of American modernism in photography and a longtime Monterey resident, died in 1975. A year later, at the age of 61, his wife, Edna Bullock, knocked on the door of the Monterey Peninsula College photography department, where instructor Henry Gilpin was teaching a Photography 1 class. “What in the world are you doing here, Edna?” he asked. He had known her photographer husband and he knew her as a former dancer and physical trainer, and in later years a teacher of home economics. “What do you think, Henry?” she retorted. “I’m here to learn!” This is how Barbara Bullock-Wilson, writer and curator of her parents’ photographic legacy, tells the story of how her mother, recently widowed, started her career. Edna was a practical woman; her husband gave her a camera, and he left behind a darkroom and equipment, so taking photos herself seemed like a practical thing to do. Edna picked up the camera her husband gave her as a memento, the Nikon F, and she started photographing her family, including her mother-inlaw, Lillie. “I can do this!” she decided. Moreover, “I want to do this!” “Edna and Wynn were, in my mind, such partners that I assumed Edna knew all there was to know about photography,” Gilpin recalled in the 1995 book, Edna’s Nudes, by Bullock-Wilson. “To find her enrolled in my basic photography class at MPC was a shock.” The portrait of Lillie was the first photo Edna Bullock was recognized for, before she became a legend herself, a white-haired grandma who specialized in male nudes and was not above getting naked herself (when a model didn’t show up), standing on the other side of the camera during one of her workshops in Yosemite National Park. “With the MPC photo department’s support, Edna’s 20-year career as a fine art photographer and popular workshop leader was launched,” BullockWilson wrote in her book. Several of Edna’s photographs are on permanent display in the MPC Library. During her lifetime, her work was included in exhibitions at the MPC Art Gallery and she was invited periodically to speak about Wynn’s and her work to MPC photography classes. Right: Barbara Bullock-Wilson holding an image of her mother, photographer Edna Bullock. Below: Center for Photographic Art Executive Director Ann Jastrab in the nonprofit’s gallery in the Sunset Center in Carmel. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS
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