Chosen  photographer    

My  chosen  photographer  is,  Imogen  Cunningham  for  my  case  study.  Imogen  is  an  American  born  photographer,  who  got  really  interested  in  photography  when  at  the  University  of  Washington.  She  was  a  photographer  that  took  pictures  of  many  subjects,  one  of  these  were  botany  based.  When  taking  photos  of  plants,  she  tries  to  capture  the  unique  features  of  the  plant,  with  natural  light  bringing  out  the  tones  of  the  plant.    Biography  Imogen  Cunningham  grew  up  in  Seattle,  Washington  and  attended  the  University  of  Washington  in  Seattle,  majoring  in  chemistry  after  she  was  advised  by  her  professor  that  she  should  have  a  scientific  background  if  she  wanted  to  be  a  photographer.  To  pay  her  expenses  she  worked  as  a  secretary  to  her  chemistry  professor  and  made  slides  for  the  botanists.  Imogen  Cunningham's  thesis  when  she  graduated  from  the  University  of  Washington  with  a  major  in  chemistry  was  titled  “Modern  Processes  of  Photography.”    In  1914,  her  first  one-­‐person  exhibition  was  held  at  the  Brooklyn  Institute  of  Arts  and  Sciences.    Imogen  Cunningham  accepted  her  first  commercial  assignment  after  the  birth  of  the  twins  to  photograph  the  Adolph  Bohm  Ballet  Intime.  She  also  began  to  make  her  first  sharp  focus  plant  photographs.  Imogen  Cunningham  was  included  in  the  Pictorial  Photographic  Society  Exhibition  at  the  California  Palace  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  in  San  Francisco.  Imogen  made  her  first  double-­‐exposure  photograph,  a  photograph  of  her  hard-­‐working  mother  with  a  crown  of  silver  spoons.    Ten  of  her  photographs  were  exhibited  in  the  prestigious  Film  and  Foto  ExhibItion  in  Stuttgart,  Germany.  Imogen  Cunningham  also  had  a  local  exhibition  at  the  Berkeley  Art  Museum.  Imogen  Cunningham  had  an  exhibition  at  the  M.H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum  in  San  Francisco.  Imogen  met  and  photographed  the  dancer,  Martha  Graham.  After  the  Graham  photographs  were  published  in  the  December  issue  of  Vanity  Fair  the  editors  asked  her  to  take  assignments  photographing  Hollywood  personalities.  As  an  original  member  of  Group  f.64  she  participated  in  the  exhibition  at  the  M.H.  de  Young  Memorial  Museum  in  San  Francisco  and  had  a  one-­‐person  exhibition  at  the  Los  Angeles  County  Museum.    During  the  war  years  she  sold  her  house  in  Oakland  and  used  a  friend's  studio  and  darkroom  in  San  Francisco,  preparing  for  a  permanent  studio  in  San  Francisco.  Imogen  established  a  studio  in  her  home  on  Green  Street  in  San  Francisco.  During  the  next  thirteen  years  her  work  was  exhibited  across  the  country  and  she  continued  her  street  photography  work  when  she  was  not  making  portraits.  Imogen  taught  intermittently  at  the  California  School  of  Fine  Arts  in  San  Francisco.  The  International  Museum  of  Photography,  at  George  Eastman  House  in  Rochester,  New  York,  purchased  a  major  retrospective  collection  of  her  work.  Imogen  used  the  money  to  travel  and  photograph  in  both  Western  and  Eastern  Europe.  Imogen  experimented  with  Polaroid  film.  The  Library  of  Congress  purchased  a  collection  of  her  work  and  the  photographic  publisher,  Aperture,  published  a  monograph  of  her  work.        

Image  analysis    

This  photo  was  in  the  exhibition.  Great  women  in  the  history  of  photography.  The  subject  is  shot  straight  on,  with  the  middle  part  of  the  flower  in  the  centre  in  the  photo,  the  petals  are  in  the  rule  of  thirds,  to  show  that  it  is  a  blossomed  version  of  the  magnolia  bud  image.  It  shows  great  detail  in  the  flower,  the  lighting  makes  the  petals  of  the  image  stands  out  more,  she  probably  takes  time  in  taking  the  photo,  to  get  the  right  lighting  and  the  right  angle  to  take  the  picture.