In 1929 she moved to Long Beach, California, where she lived alone in a number of apartments near the ocean. She found inspiration along the picturesque shorelines of the Pacific and held a major solo exhibition at the Bothwell and Cooke Galleries in January 1936; the "Los Angeles Times" singled out "Wings", "Design" and "El Dolor" as her “choicest” photographs. In 1940 she lived in Los Angeles and gave her occupation as “writer”. Within three years Brigman had returned to Long Beach, where she was a member of the Poets’ Guild and the Writers’ Market League. At the latter she read her narrative "Deepwater Ships that Pass."