Imogen Cunningham began photographing in 1901 after being inspired by the work of Gertrude Kaesebier. Born in Portland, Oregon, she graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle with a major in chemistry and went to work in the studio of Edward S. Curtis, where she learned the process of platinum printing. In 1909 she continued her education in photographic chemistry at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden. After meeting with Kaesebier and Alfred Stieglitz in New York on her return trip from Europe, Cunningham settled in Seattle around 1910 and opened a portrait studio which was an immediate success. One of the pioneers of modernism on the West Coast, Cunningham was among the founding members of Group f/64. She excelled in portraiture and after her picture of the dancer Martha Graham was published in Vanity Fair in 1932, she worked for the publication in New York and Hollywood until 1934. Her worked gained greater recognition after 1950; she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1970 and in the decade that followed had exhibitions at numerous institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Imogen Cunningham Photography
Imogen Cunningham Photography