IMOGEN
CUNNINGHAM
Imogen Cunningham is an American photographer who was born in the late 19th century yet the majority of her career was conducted through the 20th century. She pursued a degree in chemistry at the The University of Washington in 1907, yet, photographer was always a strong interest. She joined the Edward Curtis Studio in Seattle as an assistant to learn more about her passion, including the business of running a portrait studio and the platinum printing process. With the encouragement of the studio's printer, Adolph Kuhn, she tracked to Dresden, Germany, in 1909 to study photographic chemistry.
I came across Cunningham's work when researching Edward Weston. There are many direct similarities between Weston's work and Cunningham's, including the strong focus on light and form, which is enhanced through the black and white photography. This could've stemmed from their respective fame or from when their careers crossed paths in 1932 when Weston, Cunningham, Ansel Adams, Willard Van Dyke, and Sonya Noskowiak foundered 'Group f/64', an aperture used to achieve maximum image sharpness of both the foreground and the background.
"My best picture is the one I'll take tomorrow" - Imogen Cunningham
This positive outlook to her work is one I would like to adapt to my own image making. It allows room for mistakes and flaws which tend to be taken too seriously in the process of image making and image selection.
BOTANICALS
This subject of Cunningham's work began in the early 1920s when she started to explore "close-up, sharply detailed studies of plant life and other natural forms, including a multi-year, in-depth study of the Magnolia flower and Calla Lillies". This was a transition from her "pictorialist style of a decade earlier" as her work "became more sharply detailed". The images produced for this series are considered "some of the most recognisable photographs of Imogen Cunningham's career".
"My interest in photography has something to do with the aesthetic, and that there should be a little beauty in everything." - Imogen Cunningham
I agree with this wholeheartedly and think it is a quote that goes hand-in-hand with my intentions for my project.
I scrolled through the entire series on her website and screens hotted all the images that I liked and that I felt related in some way to my project and the images I am taking. There were many more that I didn't involve as this project spread over a long period of Cunningham's career.
I really like the intense shadows and highlights that are presented in her work, they make the images appear dramatic and somewhat cinematic in a way I would like to achieve in my images. I like how she will take images of the plant as a whole and then will zoom in closer and photograph more delicate and detailed areas. The use of black and white photography works best for these images in my opinion because use of colour might've ruined some of the dramatic atmosphere because the harsh blacks and bright whites really make these images powerful.
PALM LEAF' (1958)
On the other hand, this image is one of the few from the collection taken in colour. By having this image among all of the black and white ones, it gives a different impression to each image and makes the viewer think more. The background to this plant is a deep teal that compliments the numerous shades of green - it makes us wonder what backgrounds were used for the other images and whether they were taken in front of backgrounds that complimented the plant's colour or if that decision was limited to this specific photograph.
I also really like the way she has still used light to create intense shadows and highlights (if only to a slightly lesser extreme). The way she uses light in this image emphasises the colours in the leaves and makes for quite an artistic photograph that you can envisage as a print in someone's living room.
REFERNCES:
https://www.imogencunningham.com/about/bio/
https://www.imogencunningham.com/artworks/categories/47-botanicals/
