Table of Contents
What techniques did Imogen Cunningham use?
Many of Imogen’s most iconic photographs gravitated towards the use of light and shadow to present common scenes in an extraordinary way by accentuating texture and shapes. She could look past what a subject was to see what it could be.
What is Imogen Cunningham style of photography?
Cunningham studied at the University of Washington in Seattle, where she developed an interest in photography. Her earliest prints were made in the tradition of Pictorialism, a style of photography that imitated academic painting from the turn of the century.
What was Imogen Cunningham influenced by?
Inspired by Gertrude Käsebier’s photographs, Imogen Cunningham learned to use a 4×5 view camera via correspondence school. She studied chemistry at the University of Washington and, after graduating, worked in the studio of Edward Sheriff Curtis making commercial platinum prints.
Why is Imogen Cunningham important in photography?
Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) was an innovative American photographer. She was best known for her detailed, sharply focused photographs of plants as well as her revealing portraits. Cunningham took many well-known portraits of celebrities and artists, especially while working for Vanity Fair in the 1930s.
What is Pictorialism and why is it so important to the history of photography?
Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality. The Pictorialist perspective was born in the late 1860s and held sway through the first decade of the 20th century.
What influenced Pictorialism?
Pictorialism was closely linked to prevailing artistic movements, as the photographers took inspiration from popular art, adopting its styles and ideas to demonstrate parity between it and photography.
What is the concern of straight photography?
Straight photography refers to a photograph that is not manipulated while depicting a scene or subject in sharp focus and detail.
How is straight photography modernism different from Pictorialism?
The overall objective of Pictorialism is to make the photographs look more like paintings. However, the overall objective of Straight Photography is to make the photographs look more like photographs rather than paintings. These approaches stand in sharp contrast.
What is edge burning in photography?
For those of you with no darkroom experience, an edge burn is a subtle darkening of the edges around the images, gradually darkening from center to outside edge. By well-executed, I mean one that has no visible edges and may not even be noticeable except when the print is compared to the original.
What is a burning technique?
To burn-in a print, the print is first given normal exposure. Next, extra exposure is given to the area or areas that need to be darkened. A card or other opaque object is held between the enlarger lens and the photographic paper in such a way as to allow light to fall only on the portion of the scene to be darkened.
What was the goal of Pictorialism?
Pictorialism, an approach to photography that emphasizes beauty of subject matter, tonality, and composition rather than the documentation of reality.
What does Dodge mean in photography?
In a darkroom print from a film negative, dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.
What does it mean to dodge a photo?
Dodging is the process of covering over part of the light hitting the paper, creating a shadowed area that does not receive the same light exposure as the rest of the scene.
What is Imogen Cunningham best known for?
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. …
What are the characteristics of a Cunningham image?
Cunningham centers the image on the woman’s seated torso, her upper body curved and her arm gently stretched downward past her thigh. There is negative space formed between arm, leg, stomach, and breast; shadows and light interplay across the soft curves of the female form.
What did Harriet Cunningham do in the 1920s?
Cunningham explored Pictorialism expansively at this moment in her career and produced other significant works including Veiled Woman (1910), Ben Butler (1910), The Supplicant (1910), and The Dream (1910). By the mid-1920s Cunningham was spending most of her time at home looking after her three young children.