Among the first female photographers to represent the female nude, Imogen Cunningham challenged gender restrictions in both her profession and her art. Given the span of her career, from 1910 to the mid-70s, the variety of subjects and techniques to be found at the Seattle Art Museum, in the first major retrospective of Cunningham’s work in 35 years, should be no surprise.
The photographer, who earned a university degree in the chemistry of photographic processes, employed a meticulous yet ever restless eye. As a result, it’s difficult to point to just one photo that typifies her work. While this testifies to an abundant imagination, it has also made her influence less identifiable than that of her contemporaries, such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, or Berenice Abbott.
