Imogen Cunningham

Imogen Cunningham, early feminist and master photographer, enjoyed a seventy-year career and fervently worked up until shortly before her death in 1976 at age 93. Both as a woman and an artist, Cunningham made some of the most outstanding historic contributions to fine art photography. Most known for her stunning close-ups of flowers ("Blumenformen"), Cunningham's first love was portraiture, from which she earned her living throughout most of her life. She also made great strides in nude photography, unfettered by the uproar caused by her first nude images in 1910. Cunningham's daring and brilliant work helped establish photography as an art from. Becoming a photographer was a childhood dream that Cunningham pursued with passionate determination. During her career she photographed thousands of individuals, including a great number of celebrities, writers, and artists such as Herbert Hoover, Ansel Adams, Frida Kahlo, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, and Cary Grant. Her style was unique, fired by a complex, sensitive, and imaginative vision and a never-ending desire to experiment (she never tired of trying alternative techniques, a favorite of hers being double exposure). Cunningham was not afraid to stand apart from the crowd, her sensual flowers and bold nudes- notably a nude of a pregnant woman from 1946, a photographic first- earning her great respect and admiration from her contemporaries, notably Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. Imogen Cunningham: Life and Work 1883-1976 gathers together the best of her work from all her genres and includes an extensive illustrated biography and bibliography. Poetic and visionary, the remarkable work of Imogen Cunningham lives on this beautiful new book.