A Nautilus Shell print by Edward Weston has sold for $461,000 in Christie's September 29 sale in New York.

Weston is one of the most influential photographers of all time.

Weston began work on the Nautilus series in 1927

He began working on his shell series after a conversation with artist Henrietta Shore, who had begun to focus on natural forms in her own work.  

He wrote in a 1927 journal entry: "I was awakened to shells by the painting of Henry [Henrietta Shore]. I never saw a Chambered Nautilus before.

"If I had, my response would have been immediate. If I merely copy Henry's expression, my work will not live. If I am stimulated and work with real ecstasy it will live."

On the eroticism others picked up on in his work, he wrote: "I am not blind to the sensuous quality in shells, with which they combine the deepest spiritual significance…

"No! I had no physical thoughts,—never have. I worked with clearer vision of sheer aesthetic form. I knew that I was recording from within, my feeling for life as I never had before…

"Others must get from them what they bring to them: evidently they do!"

Weston is among the biggest names in the photography market, his work often selling close to or above the $1m mark. Earlier this year another piece from the series made $905,000 at Sotheby's New York.

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