In the manner of…

Imogen Cunningham

By Parker Mackin

Bio Information

Born on April 12, 1883

Born in Portland, Oregon

Grew up in Seattle, Washington

Died on June 24, 1976

Majored in Chemistry at University of Washington

Growing Up

• Imogen was one of ten children born to Isaac Burns Cunningham & Susan Cunningham

• She was homeschooled until the age of 8

• Bought her first camera at the age of 18

Photographic Style• She enjoyed photographing

nudes & plants in their natural environment.

• Cunningham loved the use of textures & natural light.

• Best known for outstanding floral images photographed during the 1920’s

• Her images were mostly sharply focused.

Calla with Leaf, about 1929

Studying Abroad• In 1909, Cunningham won a

scholarship from her sorority which allowed her to study abroad in Germany

• She studied with professor Robert Luther at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany.

• In Germany she completed the paper entitled “About Self-Production of Platinum Papers for Brown Tones”

• In the paper she urged the use of hand-coated paper for platinum prints, as much more convenient and easier to handle than commercial paper.

Accomplishments• After graduating from the University of

Washington, Imogen worked in the Seattle portrait studio of Edward S. Curtain.

• Cunningham was the Co-founder of a group called “F/64”, this group included well-known photographers such as Edward Weston & Asnel Adams.

• She has written at least 6 books

Impact on Art History• In 1901, Imogen spent $15 on her

first camera which started the longest photographic career in history, which was 75 years.

• She worked with photography for half of the time that it existed.

• Over the years she explored with all aspects of photography and also worked with it as it changed.

• She started taking photos of her children and plants but later moved to nudity.

• She was one of he first female photographers to exhibit male nudes.

My Impression • I loved that Imogen had a variety of photographs.

• She didn’t just focus on one type of photography.

• She took photos of actors, artists, dancers, fencers, her family, painters, writers, sculpters, musicians, and also, herself.

• Other than people she took photos of pants and landscapes.

• Imogen has made an impression on me because if I ever start a career as a photographer I would take pictures of many different things, I wouldn’t be able to just focus on one thing.

Citations

http://www.imogencunningham.com/

http://photography.about.com/od/famousphotographers/a/imogencunninghambiography.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imogen_Cunningham#Books

http://fadedandblurred.com/spotlight/imogen-cunningham/