Imogen Cunningham, Photographer

From my early years in photography, there is an image of a magnolia flower that still exists in my head. It was the impetus for my macro photography and nature photography in general. Magnolia Blossom, Tower of Jewels (1925) by Cunningham represented not only a shift in photographic printing methods, but also a departure from Pictorialism photography to Straight photography in the 1920’s.

Imogen was born in Portland, Oregon on April 12th, 1883 and raised in Seattle, Washington. Her father was supportive of the arts, encouraging Imogen’s interest in photography at a young age. Imogen purchased her first camera via mail-order for only $15, and her father built her a darkroom in the woodshed to process the images by candlelight. She graduated from the University of Washington in 1907 with a Chemistry degree, which aided in her photographic printing endeavors and technical expertise. Imogen opened her first studio in 1910, married Roi Patridge in 1915, bore her first son the same year and closed her studio in 1917 before moving her family to the San Francisco Bay Area in California. In her early photographic work, she leaned heavily into a Pictorial style, which was common for the time. This style included softness and usually an ethereal feel, with images often printed using the platinum printing process.

With three small children at home, Imogen continued her photography by capturing flowers in her own garden. In an interview, Imogen said, “I photographed the plants in my garden and steered my children around at the same time,” (Johnson, p. 120) In the early 1920’s, she met Edward Weston, who soon become an influential friend. From 1923 to 1925, Imogen focused on her Magnolia series, and in 1929 with the help of Weston, she debuted another botanical triumph, Two Callas, in the “Film und Foto” international exhibition in Germany (FiFo). This was the beginning of a shift in photography wherein clarity and precision were the driving elements. Photographers like Cunningham, Weston and Ansel Adams became prominent figures in the deviation from Pictorialism to what they considered “Straight” photography. In 1932, a group of eleven friends created Group f/64, a collective of modern photographers dedicated to photographing the world in fine detail as it is, without manipulation. In large format cameras, f/64 is the smallest setting for the aperture, which creates the sharpest image and the most depth of field. Cunningham is arguably the most notable and influential female photographer to join Group f/64, with an equal number of images showcased alongside her male peers at the debut exhibition at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum. This was during a time when male photographers heavily outweighed female photographers. After World War I, the platinum used in printing became more expensive and less easily accessed. Imogen changed her printing process in the 1930’s to the gelatin silver printing process, which resulted in excellent clarity and tonal range for her modern images, as well as eliminated the need for platinum in printing. The Imogen Cunningham Trust was created in 1975 by Imogen to preserve not only her original negatives, but also her original printing techniques. You can still purchase her silver gelatin prints today, fifty years after her passing.

            Imogen’s career spanned over seven decades, and she continued to photograph subjects into her nineties. She also provided a wealth of photographic information for the scientific community with her extensively detailed work on flora. Each time I see a magnolia blossom, I think of the image that began my love of photographing flowers, and I am thankful for Imogen’s trailblazing work and her dedication to capturing beauty across her lifetime.

Works Cited

“Imogen’s Timeline | About Imogen.” ImogenCunningham.Com, 2026, www.imogencunningham.com/imogens-timeline. 

Brooks Johnson, ed., Photography Speaks: 150 Photographer On Their Art (New York: Aperture, 2005), 120.

D, Jerome. “Imogen Cunningham: Ninety-Three Years Behind the Lens.” WhatCameraGear.Com, 2026, www.whatcameragear.com/2026/07/imogen-cunningham-ninety-three-years.html. 

Mattei, Selena. “Imogen Cunningham.” ArtMajeur Online Art Gallery, 27 June 2023, www.artmajeur.com/en/magazine/5-art-history/imogen-cunningham/333691.