| Names: | Other: Imogen Cunningham Partridge
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| | Dates: | 1883, 12 April - 1976, 24 June | | Born: | US, OR, Portland | | Died: | US, CA, San Francisco | | Active: | US | | Gender: | Female |
American photographer.Preparing biographies
Biography provided by Focal Press
Inspired to take up photography in 1901 after seeing the work of Gertrude Käsebier, she learned platinum printing from Edward S. Curtis, eventually opening a portrait studio in Seattle (1910). Her first work was romantic, soft-focus portraits and nudes. After moving to San Francisco in 1917, she adopted modernism. Cunningham’s images came to reflect Group f/64’s credo (of which she was a founder) that the "greatest aesthetic beauty, the fullest power of expression, the real worth of the medium lies in its pure form rather than in its superficial modifications." Her tightly rendered 1920s plant studies presents nature with machine precision or as sexual allusion, drawing sensual parallels to the female form that she explored through her long career. Although the picture is a faithful rendering of a plant, Cunningham’s concern was not the subject itself, but what the subject could become under the photographer’s control. She worked as a commercial photographer from the 1930s. Her last book, After Ninety (1979), was a sympathetic portrait collection of elderly people.
(Author: Robert Hirsch - Independent scholar and writer)
Michael Peres (Editor-in-Chief), 2007, Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, 4th edition, (Focal Press) [ISBN-10: 0240807405, ISBN-13: 978-0240807409]
(Used with permission)
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Dater, Judy, 1979, Imogen Cunningham: A Portrait, (Boston: New York Graphic Society) [Δ]
Lorenz, Roland, 1993, Imogen Cunningham: Ideas Without End: A Life and Photographs, (San Francisco: Chronicle Books) [Δ]
Rule, Amy (ed.), 1992, Imogen Cunningham: Selected Texts and Bibliography, (Boston: G. K. Hall) [World Photographers Reference Series, vol. 2.] [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com | |
Family history
If you are related to this photographer and interested in tracking down your extended family we can place a note here for you to help. It is free and you would be amazed who gets in touch.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
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Exhibitions on this website |
 | Imogen Cunningham: Magnolia Blossom |
|  | Imogen Cunningham: On Mount Rainier |
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All photographs by this photographer
The following books are useful starting points to obtain brief biographies but they are not substitutes for the monographs on individual photographers. |
• Auer, Michele & Michel 1985 Encyclopedie Internationale Des Photographes de 1839 a Nos Jours / Photographers Encylopaedia International 1839 to the present (Hermance, Editions Camera Obscura) 2 volumes [A classic reference work for biographical information on photographers.]
• Beaton, Cecil & Buckland, Gail 1975 The Magic Eye: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown & Company) p.156 [Useful short biographies with personal asides and one or more example images.]
• Capa, Cornell (ed.) 1984 The International Center of Photography: Encyclopedia of Photography (New York, Crown Publishers, Inc. - A Pound Press Book) p.125-126
• Coke, Van Deren with Diana C. Du Pont 1986 Photography: A Facet of Modernism (New York: Hudson Hills Press, The San Francisco Museum of Art) p.171
• Evans, Martin Marix (Executive ed.) 1995 Contemporary Photographers [Third Edition] (St. James Press - An International Thomson Publishing Company) [Expensive reference work but highly informative.]
• Fernandez, Horacio (ed.) 2000 Fotografía Pública: Photography in Print 1919-1939 (Aldeasa) p.82 [This Spanish exhibition catalogue is one of the best sources for illustrations of photomontage and book design for the period between the two World Wars.]
• Heyman, Theres Thau 1992 Seeing Straight: Group f.64 (California: The Oakland Museum) p.151
• International Center of Photography 1999 Reflections in a Glass Eye: Works from the International Center of Photography Collection (New York: A Bulfinch Press Book) p.213 [Includes a well written short biography on Imogen Cunningham with example plate(s) earlier in book.]
• Lenman, Robin (ed.) 2005 The Oxford Companion to the Photograph (Oxford: Oxford University Press) [Includes a short biography on Imogen Cunningham.]
• Witkin, Lee D. and Barbara London 1979 The Photograph Collector’s Guide (London: Secker and Warburg) p.115-116 [Long out of print but an essential reference work - the good news is that a new edition is in preparation.]
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If there is an analysis of a single photograph or a useful self portrait I will highlight it here. |
• Gruber, Renate and L. Fritz Gruber 1982 The Imaginary Photo Museum (New York: Harmony Books) p.244
• Lahs-Gonzales, Olivia & Lippard, Lucy 1997 Defining Eye: Women Photographers of the 20th Century. Selections from the Helen Kornblum Collection (Saint Louis Art Museum, D.A.P.) [Imogen Cunningham is included in this overview of women photographers.]
• Naef, Weston 1995 The J. Paul Getty Museum - Handbook of the Photographic Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum) p.123, 182
• Newhall, Beaumont 1982 The History of Photography - Fifth Edition (London: Secker & Warburg) [One or more photographs by Imogen Cunningham are included in this classic history.]
• Sobieszek, Robert A. and Deborah Irmas 1994 the camera i: Photographic Self-Portraits (Los Angeles: LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art) p.213, Plate 92 [When the Audrey and Sydney Irmas collection was donated to LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1992 the museum gained a remarkable collection of self portraits of notable photographers. If you need a portrait of Imogen Cunningham this is a useful starting point.]
• Szarkowski, John 1973 Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art (New York: The Museum of Modern Art) p.100 [Analyzes a single photograph by Imogen Cunningham.]
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Photographic collections are a useful means of examining large numbers of photographs by a single photographer on-line.
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Library of Congress, Washington, USA
Approximate number of records: ?
Note: A single record may contain more than one photograph. | Click here |
| "Oh people have forgotten that, Dorothea. They‘ve forgotten that I ever did plant forms. You know, I‘ve tried my best to sell people on the idea that I photograph anything that can be exposed to light." | | "The Magnolia Flower, the most common job I ever did, is still on exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. And whenever they sell a print, that‘s what they sell. That's what I call conservative buyers ... I always think that the finest one is the one I‘m going to do, not the one that I have done. So as soon as I‘ve done it, it‘s finished. But I‘m hoping some day to do a fine one." | | "The thing that‘s fascinating about portraiture is that nobody is alike." | | "Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I‘m going to take tomorrow." |
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