Imogen cunningham biography summary of winston

Imogen Cunningham was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1883. After graduating from the University of Washington (1907) Cunningham worked with Edward Curtis, a photographer of Native Indians.

In 1909 Cunningham studied photographic chemistry at Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany. When she returned to the United States the following year, she opened her own portrait studio in Seattle. Over the next few years she concentrated on soft-focus photographs.

Cunningham moved to San Francisco in 1917. Her work consisted mainly of plant studies until she met Edward Weston in 1923. Eventually the couple were to join with Ansel Adams to form the Group f/64. The group became associated with sharply focused pictures such as Cunningham's Two Callas (1929). In 1932 Cunningham began photographing political figures and Hollywood stars for Vanity Fair.

In the 1960s Cunningham ran a portrait gallery and taught at the San Francisco Art Institute. She also photograph

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Exhibition dates: 8th March – 12th June 2022

 

 

Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883-1976)
On Mount Rainer
1915
Platinum print
18.4 × 23.4cm (7 1/4 × 9 3/16 in.)
Getty Museum
© Imogen Cunningham Trust

 

 

This is the second posting on this magnificent exhibition on the work of the American photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976), this time its iteration at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Cunningham, whose broad expanse of work stretches from Pictorialism through avant-garde to Group f/64 modernism, has for too long been underrated in the pantheon of 20th century photographic stars.

In this posting there are 20 or so new images from the exhibition, including contributions from luminaries and friends such as Minor White, Edward Weston, Lisette Model and Dorothea Lange. Of interest is the close inramning of the portraits (for example see Sonya Noskowiak 1928, below) and, with these media images, the ability to see the placement and si

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Exhibition dates: 18th November, 2021 – 6th February, 2022

 

 

 

I’m not going to say a lot about the work of the Imogen Cunningham because the quality and breadth of the work speaks for itself. If you are attuned you can feel the strength of her images and imbibe of her sensitivity to subject matter, a sense of actual presence in light and form. For example, the portrait of Gertrude Stein, Writer (1934, below) is a masterpiece of light and form and of … perspicacity and intensity.

“An early feminist and inspiration to future generations, Cunningham engaged intensely with pictorialism and modernism, along with portraiture, landscape photography, the nude, still life and street photography… Under appreciated during her life, Cunningham was an inventive, inspired and prolific photographer who tirelessly explored her chosen medium until her death at the age of 93.”1

“Observing that her “taste lay somewhere