Imogen Cunningham 

Ruth Asawa and Her Wire Sculpture 2, 1951

American photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) remains best known for her nudes and botanical studies. Although Cunningham started working as a professional photographer in 1907, she only began to receive widespread recognition in 1929 when Edward Weston selected ten of her images for Film und Foto, a group exhibition in Stuttgart. In 1932, she became one of the founding members of Group f/64, a group of eleven San Francisco-based photographers that eschewed the dreamy softness of Pictorialism in favor of a more realistic, sharply focused aesthetic. Cunningham remained a prolific photographer until her death at age 93. As the photographer Arnold Newman recalled of his friend, Imogen, "She started very young when there were a few women photographers, but most of them were photographing very daintily, while Imogen was doing really serious photography. Nice girls didn’t do that, but she used to say with a gleam in her eye, 'But I wasn’t a nice girl.'"¹ 
 
Cunningham and Ruth Asawa were close friends and neighbors. Over their more than two decade friendship, Cunningham continually photographed Asawa and her work, recording her sculptures and process. 
 
1Arnold Newman quoted in Marisa C. Sánchez, "This is My Garden: Imogen Cunningham's Early Years", in Imogen Cunningham (Madrid: Fundacion Mapfre, 2012), p. 45.

Provenance

Imogen Cunningham Trust

Exhibition

London, David Zwirner, Ruth Asawa: A Line Can Go Anywhere, January 10 - February 22, 2020.