Imogen Cunningham

One of the first professional female photographers in America, Imogen Cunningham is best known for her botanical still lifes and intimate portraits of cultural icons including Frida Kahlo, Martha Graham, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, and Ruth Asawa. Cunningham was a contemporary of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, and Dorothea Lange and a member of Group f/64, an influential association of West Coast modernist photographers. Rather than looking at her Northern California landscape through sentimental eyes, she captured the sensuousness and personality of individual plants as she photographed them in minimalist, geometric close-ups. Elegant curves and a soft balance of light and shadow are hallmarks of Cunningham’s black-and-white shots. Today, her work can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. On the secondary market, Cunningham’s photographs have sold for six-figure prices.