Imogen Cunningham interviews and papers, 1915-1977

Imogen Cunningham (April 12th, 1883 – June 23rd, 1976) was a United States photographer renowned for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. She was a member of Group f/64 (1932) which is known for sharp-focus rendition of simple photography subjects. She was born in Portland, Oregon, to Isaac Burns Cunningham and Susan Elizabeth (née Johnson) Cunningham as the fifth of 10 children. She took art lessons on weekends while she attended the Denny School in Seattle, Washington. Imogen bought her first camera at the age of 18 in 1901. Two years later she attended the University of Washington and graduated in 1907 with a degree in chemistry. She went on to work for Edward Sheriff Curtis (February 16th, 1869 – October 19th, 1952) at his photography studio where she helped him to document Native American tribes for his book, The North American Indian, first published in 1907. In 1909 she studied in Dresden, Germany, for a year before returning to Seattle to open her own studio. She caused a scandal after publishing nude pictures of her artist friend George Roy Partridge (October 14th, 1888 – January 25th, 1984), who she married in 1915, in the Town Crier newspaper. The couple had three children and moved to San Francisco, California, in 1920 where Imogen focused on botanical photographs and later on industrial landscapes. She divorced her husband in 1934 after accepting an invite to travel to New York to work for Vanity Fair. In the 1940s she turned to street photography as a side project to her commercial and studio photography. In 1945 she became a faculty member for the California School of Fine Arts art photography department. Imogen went on to teach photography until her death in 1976. Two years prior in 1974 she appeared in a famous photograph by Judy Dater (b. June 21st, 1941) depicting her with the renowned nude model, Twinka Thiebaud, in Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite.