Richard Lorenz (–2001)

This volume presents an overview of Imogen Cunningham's figure studies dating from 1906 through to 1976, the year of her death. Although the majority of the included photos date from the 1920s and 1930s, her later work in this genre continued to be compelling and provocative. An illustrated essay discusses Cunningham's interest in the human form, influences on her work and comparable images by other photographers. Text illustrations include work by a wide range of contempories and the book also includes a chronology of Cunningham's life and a selected bibliography. Imogen Cunningham was a pioneer of 20th-century photography, an artist whose work significantly contributed to the acceptance of the medium as an art form. She devoted her life to her craft and photographed continuously and passionately for over 70 years. Her images of the body explore the human form in great detail: eyes, ears, heads, hands, breasts, feet. The sensuous forms she photographed are sculpted by brilliant sunlight and reveal both the universal and the unique aspects of the body. Many of her images have become well-known and popular icons in the history of art.… (mer)