Last weekend the Peninsula bloomed with outpourings of art courtesy of two major events: Chautauqua Days in Pacific Grove and Art in the Adobes in Monterey. Starting this weekend the photographic world takes a turn in capturing our gaze with a flurry of shows and talks. Here’s a snapshot:

ICONS & LEGENDS | Marjorie Evans Gallery, Sunset Center

It’s still another week away, but you’ll appreciate the heads-up on the coming waves of creative illumination of the third Carmel Art & Film Festival, with its feeding frenzy of films (including a private screening of Clint Eastwood’s unreleased J. Edgar), art, panels and music programs. But don’t overlook this other picture show, by fine art and celebrity photographer Michael Childers, opening in the hubbub of the festival’s gala on Oct. 13.

The exhibition features portraits of David Bowie, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Andy Warhol and other stars who dotted the constellation of the 1970s glam scene. It’s an added component of the festival’s scenester scenery best exemplified by the T-shirt they’re selling at their Carmel Plaza headquarters: “Do you know who I am?” Yes, Carmel Art & Film, we do.

Open Oct. 13-31. San Carlos between Eighth and Ninth, Carmel. Free. 625-3700, www.carmelartandfilm.com

JERRY UELSMANN: DANCES WITH NEGATIVES | Center for Photographic Art

The folks at CPA put on a show of 55 of Uelsmann’s black-and-white “dream-like” photomontage work. The surreal juxtapositions of rivers, trees and mountains (and nude women and furniture), bending the laws of physics, look part Salvador Dalí and M.C. Escher, with a trained eye holding it all together.

The opening begins with a lecture from Uelsmann in the Sunset Center’s big theater venue, and although a $20 general admission ticket seems steep for a lecture/presentation, CPA Executive Director Nancy Bud says, “Everyone who’s seen him says he’s a kick.”

Sat opening: 2:30pm lecture, 3:30-5:30pm opening reception and book signing. Sunset Center, San Carlos and Ninth, Carmel. Free/teacher, student with ID; $5/CPA member; $20/nonmember. 625-5181, www.photography.org

WILLEM PHOTOGRAPHIC AND LEVIN GALLERY GRAND OPENING

It’s actually been open since March, but this Friday they make the official announcement. And what an announcement it is: There are more than 1,000 photographs up on the walls.

“We think [that] makes it the largest photography gallery in the U.S.,” says owner Brooke Gabrielson. “No one I’ve talked to knows of a larger gallery.”

The conjoined galleries were created when Gabrielson bought two condominium spaces between his Willem Photographic (named after his departed dog) and Russell Levin’s gallery and put up more wall space. And the quality of the stuff – fine art, fashion, nudes, landscapes – is promised by the names of the shooters: Richard Avedon, Roman Loranc, Ryuijie, Nick Brandt, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, etc. Inescapably, no collection is complete without Ansel Adams and… wait for it… the Westons.

5-9pm Fri grand opening; regular hours: 10am-4pm Mon-Fri, 11am-1pm Sat, by appointment. 426 Calle Principal, unit 102, Monterey. 949-887-4373, 649-1166.

EDWARD WESTON: AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHER | Monterey Museum of Art-La Mirada

This show of landscapes, portraits and nudes has been up since June, but it’s worth revisiting for a few reasons. One: It’s Edward Weston. Two: It closes this Sunday. Three: You may not have done the self-guided cell phone audio tour, which gleans fascinating insights. On his shoot with Robinson Jeffers, Edward wrote in his exhaustive journal, Daybooks, that Jeffers was “not nervous as some are in front of a camera… Jeffers really posed… feeling the part he was to play. This was disconcerting.” And the photo “Eroded Rocks, South Shore, Point Lobos,” the cell phone audio tour tells us, was his “final photograph” before he succumbed to Parkinson’s disease. Says the script, his sons Cole and Brett (see below) were not present to help him, on that last shoot, as they usually were.

11am-5pm Wed-Sat; 1-4pm Sun. 720 Via Mirada, Monterey. $10/adult; $5/student, military; free/member, child 12 or under. 372-5477, www.montereyart.org

A RESTLESS EYE: THE EXHIBITION | Weston Gallery

This show of work by Brett Weston opened Sept. 10, on what would have been his 100th birthday, with a booksigning of the newly released biography by his daughter Erica Weston and friend and assistant John Charles Woods, appointed with 95 photos. Weston Gallery’s exhibition component sounds promisingly, lovingly comprehensive.

“We have some of his most well known images [and] several of his lesser known abstract works,” says gallery owner Richard Gadd.

This show comes down Oct. 30, but, as demonstrated again and again, you can’t keep a good Weston down.

10:30am-5:30pm Tue-Sun. Sixth and Dolores, Carmel. 624-4453, www.westongallery.com