Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective

Thoroughly researched and beautifully produced, this catalogue complements the first comprehensive retrospective in the United States of Imogen Cunningham's work in over thirty-five years. Celebrated American artist Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) enjoyed a long career as a photographer, creating a large and diverse body of work that underscored her unique vision, versatility, and commitment to the medium. An early feminist and inspiration to future generations, Cunningham intensely engaged with Pictorialism and Modernism; genres of portraiture, landscape, the nude, still life, and street photography; and themes such as flora, dancers and music, hands, and the elderly. Organized chronologically, this volume explores the full range of the artist's life and career. It contains nearly two hundred color images of Cunningham's elegant, poignant, and groundbreaking photographs, both renowned and lesser known, including several that have not been published previously. Essays draw on primary sources at the Imogen Cunningham Trust, the Cunningham papers at the Archives of American Art, and contributing author Susan Ehrens's personal interviews with the artist's associates, incorporating a selection of letters, family albums, and other intimate materials to enrich readers' understanding of Cunningham's motivations and work. This volume is published to accompany an exhibition on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center September 15, 2020, to January 10, 2021 and at the Seattle Art Museum, February 11 to May 23, 2021.