Imogen Cunningham

 

Imogen Cunningham

April 12, 1883- June 24, 1976

Born in Portland, Oregon

At the age of 18 she bought her first camera from the American School of Art in Scranton, Pennsylvania. She lost her interest in photography but later in 1906 while studying in the University of Washington in Seattle she was inspired by the works of Gertrude Kasibier. After graduating she went with Edward S. Curtis to work with him in his studio where she learned about the portrait business. In 1909 she won a scholarship by her sorority to go study foreign in Dresden, Germany. Then after her way back to Seattle she met three other well-known photographers including her inspiration, Kasbier. In Seattle she opened her own studio where she worked with objects in her living room and outside places around her cottage. In 1913 her photographs were exhibited in the Brooklyn Academy of Arts and Sciences and some portfolios of her work were published in Wilson's Photographic Magazine in New York.