Get to know: Imogen Cunningham

It’s time to take a deep-dive into a trailblazing female photographer who deserves to be celebrated. Let’s get to know.

Morphing style

Cunningham did not stick to one subject or aesthetic during her long career, instead trying her hand at all the great photographic traditions and mastering them one by one. Like many in her generation she begun making work in the pictorial style, but developed more modernist tendencies later in life, and she experimented with studio portraiture, still life, street photography, abstraction, and nature photography.

Unmade bed

Move over, Tracey Emin [jk we love you so much]. Responding to a prompt from Dorothea Lange to photograph something one only uses every 24 hours, Cunningham took this iconic photograph of her bed, littered with hair pins and other detritus. Apparently she used to gift it often as a wedding present, as a reminder to husbands that sometimes their new wife might be too busy to make the bed. A lot of men still need this reminder.

Self portrait

Cunningham took her own portrait throughout her life, in an ongoing series spanning decades. There are some beguiling photographs taken in her old age, at a time when women generally become less and less visible in the media. To see an empowered older woman owning her image is super inspiring to this day.

Zooming in

She was a member of the prominent f/64 group, but while photographers like Ansel Adams used their signature crisp style to capture vast landscapes, she focused in on the micro, making botanical studies which beautifully articulated the tiny details.

Naked attraction

She repeatedly turned her gaze to the naked body, but unlike many of her male contemporaries this gaze was less voyeuristic, and more a way of exploring notions of intimacy and sensuality. Check out this amazing image by Judy Dater – Cunningham is the picture of curiosity when confronted with the model’s nudity.

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All images courtesy of The Imogen Cunningham Trust.