Imogen Cunningham
Born 1883, Portland, Oregon
Died 1976, San Francisco
1907 BA University of Washington, Seattle
1909 Technische Hochschule, Dresden
Selected museum exhibitions: Seattle Art Museum (2009); Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (1992); American Federation of Arts (1983); Art Institute of Chicago (1964); Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle (1965, 1974); George Eastman House, Rochester (1961); Cincinnati Art Museum (1956); Dallas Art Museum (1935); M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco (1931, 1970); Portland Art Museum, Oregon (1914)
Selected honors: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1970); Honorary Doctorate, California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland (1968); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1967)
Selected public collections: Art Institute of Chicago; Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, California; George Eastman House, Rochester; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Imogen Cunningham is among the most renowned American photographers of the twentieth century for her portraits, nudes, and botanical studies. With Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and others, she was a key member of Group f/64, championing precisely exposed photographs of the natural world. For Aloe, 1949, she captured the leaves of a succulent with a dramatic sense of abstract form and careful attention to light and framing.