DAY 103

FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS

Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976)

BEAUTY IN THE DETAILS

Vivid, swirling botanical images and intimate, sensual studies of both plants and people define Imogen Cunningham’s work during her many decades as a photographer. Her attention to clarity of form, pattern, and design is a common denominator through all of her work. However, she was a technical master first and foremost; a chemistry major in college, she spent several years as an apprentice to Edward Curtis, where she learned his special technique for making platinum prints.

Cunningham loved to experiment, both in and out of the darkroom. She even developed her own chemical process, adding lead salts during the printing process to produce sepia tones in her prints. Sandwiching two negatives together to create double exposure prints was another area of fascination. To her, photography was a means of exploration, play, and creativity.

One of the first female professional photographers, she opened her first studio in Seattle and was quite successful, but her vision and circle of friends blossomed dramatically when she moved to San Francisco in 1917 with her husband, artist Roi Partridge. It was there that she met influential photographers, such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, and went on to cofound Group f/64, which was short-lived yet legendary in its pursuit of technical purity and prowess.

Whether photographing magnolias, morning glories, the industrial landscapes of Oakland, or portraits of celebrities for Vanity Fair, Cunningham strove for perfection and joy of creation. She photographed actively until weeks before her death at the age of 93. —GC