Imogen Cunningham, “Self Portrait with Korona View, 1933”
©2021 Imogen Cunningham Trust

IMOGEN CUNNINGHAM (1883 - 1976)

Imogen Cunningham was born in Portland, Oregon in 1883, to a family of ten children. Her father, Isaac Burns Cunningham, named Imogen after Shakespeare’s heroine in Cymbaline and encouraged her from an early age to read and educate herself in both the arts and sciences. Though her father was not an advocate for a career in the arts, he built a darkroom for her in the family wood shed where Imogen could work.

In 1907, Imogen graduated from the University of Washington with a major in chemistry. Her thesis research titled, “Modern Processes of Photography,” lead to a position at the portrait studio of Edward S. Curtis and a grant to study the chemistry of platinum prints in Germany under Robert Luther. Upon returning to Seattle in 1910, Cunningham opened a portrait studio, becoming one of the first professional female photographers in the U.S. In 1913, Cunningham published an article titled “Photography as a Profession for Women,” advocating for women to join her and work for themselves. In 1914, Cunningham’s work was exhibited in solo shows at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the Portland Art Museum. 

In 1915 Cunningham married Roi Partridge, a fellow artist and printmaker. Shortly thereafter giving birth to the first of their sons, Gryffyd, followed rapidly by twin sons, Rondal and Padriac. The arrival of three children within a two year period of time largely confined Imogen to her home and garden, where she photographed her young sons and plants as a way of keeping her photographic career alive.

Shortly following Imogen’s 1931 solo exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, she became one of only a few women to be a founding member of Group f.64 in 1932. An organization that also included Ansel Adams and Edward Weston and advocated for photographers to revolt against pictorialism; instead employing a style of photography dedicated to sharply focused realism. Imogen solidified herself as a central figure amongst the West Coast photographers that would in time become dominant forces in the history of photography. Cunningham was close friends with photographer Dorothea Lange, a fellow mother and fixture in the San Francisco bohemian art scene. 

With a career spanning approximately 70 years, Cunningham’s work represents one of the most expansive photography careers in the history of the medium and while focused largely on portraiture and botany, explores all aspects of the genre. Her work is included in major museum collections across the U.S. and has been shown at The Chicago Art Institute, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Museum of History and Technology, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and MoMA.