Great Women of Photography
Photographs by: Berenice Abbott & Imogen Cunningham
This exhibition highlights great women in the history of photography.
Both Imogen Cunningham and Berenice Abbott were born in the Nineteenth Century and
began their careers in the early Twentieth Century. Their influence continues today.
Great Women of Photography – photographs by Imogen Cunningham & Berenice Abbott
Cunningham acquired her first camera in 1905. She studied photochemistry as well as art history and life drawing in Dresden, German. In 1910 she left for Paris and, then, on to London. Upon her return to Seattle, she established a portrait studio. She was the only photographer to be a charter member of the Seattle Fine Arts Society. She built a reputation for the clarity and perception of her portraiture. Early work with allegorical themes led to work with botanicals and nude forms, as well as multiple images. Her work spanned 70 years during which time she maintained friendships with Lange, Steiglitz, Adams, Weston and other notable figures.
Abbott was one of the Twentieth century’s most creative photographers. Marcel Duchamp introduced her to Man Ray in Paris in 1923. She became his assistant. Later, she opened her own studio photographing many of the period’s most notable artists and writers, including Eugéne Atget. In 1929, she returned to the United States. She loved the works of man – particularly the unique American environment around her. From 1935-1939, she completed the project that is the centerpiece of her career; documenting a changing New York. In the 1950’s, the need for better tools with which to teach science led her to invent new photographic techniques to record scientific phenomena.
Featured in this exhibition is the work of two photographers.
Select the image below to view the complete artist page for these photographers.
Berenice Abbott
Imogen Cunningham
High Museum of Art, Hill Auditorium
Presentations and Panel Discussions featuring: Naomi Rosenblum and Meg Partridge
Dr. Naomi Rosenblum: noted historian, curator, lecturer and author whose books include, “A History of Women Photographers”. The latest revision of the book includes segments on photographers from Asia and the Middle East. Her book, “A World History of Photography” has been translated into French, Japanese, Polish and Chinese. Critics have praised Dr. Rosenbaum’s work as insightful, authoritative, and indispensable to the field of photography. She has a doctorate degree in art history.
Meg Partridge pursued acting and photography in wide-ranging locales from Paris to Wisconsin, she completed a graduate degree in film making at San Francisco State University. She has worked in documentary film, as a cinematographer and as a producer. In addition teaching cinematography and film lighting at San Francisco State University, she directed her own documentary films. Her first film: Portrait of Imogen, won a host of awards, and was nominated for an Academy Award. Her next film: Dorothea Lange, A Visual Life, was shown at festivals in America, Germany, New Zealand, France and Canada. Her film, Outta My Light, was about her father, noted photographer, Rondal Partridge.
