Imogen Cunningham may not have the same kind of name recognition today that Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange have, but Cunningham was not just a contemporary of those luminaries of American photography, she was also a colleague. In fact, in 1945 Ansel Adams personally asked Cunningham to teach photography at the California School of Fine Arts, now the San Francisco Art Institute.
It is partly because Imogen Cunningham is an under-recognized artist that Director Dave Christensen is featuring her work in the new show “Imogen Cunningham: Paris in the Sixties,” opening this Saturday at the Harvey Milk Photo Center.
Cunningham took up photography in 1906, went to work for Edward S. Curtis in his Seattle studio in 1907, and made a name for herself over the next several decades with her photos of flowers, portraiture (especially nudes), and industrial landscapes. She began experimenting with street photography while living in San Francisco later in her life and, in the 1960s—when Cunningham was in her eighties—she hopped aboard a steam ship and headed to Paris with her cameras in tow.
The photos Cunningham snapped on the streets of the City of Lights, which have not been exhibited publicly in over 20 years, form the basis of “Imogen Cunningham: Paris in the Sixties.” It was “a seminal time in Paris,” according to the press release, with the student uprisings of 1968 just around the corner. “Her photographs from this period are an homage to a humanistic approach to photojournalism, illustrated by a casual immediacy, and a marked sense of humor.”
Jane Reed curated the original exhibit of Cunningham’s Parisian street photography that toured the world in the '90s, and is co-curating the exhibit with the Harvey Milk Photo Center’s Dave Christensen. Reed also sees Cunningham’s work as deserving of a broader audience:
Perhaps it is the quality of the quiet paradox that best describes Imogen Cunningham’s exquisite work over a life dedicated to photography. She is one of America’s most distinguished photographers, whose work, though well known, has not been given the critical attention or commentary that it deserves. Cunningham’s photographic career spanned a period of seventy-five years, from the early 1900’s to her death in 1976 at the age of ninety-three. Her persistence of vision and diverse range of subject matter have contributed many important icons to the history of photography.
Christensen says that he feels very lucky to have the opportunity to make Cunningham’s work accessible at the community level, as he feels art can not just enrich a community but “elevate life.”
“Imogen Cunningham: Paris in the Sixties” opens this Saturday, January 17th at the Harvey Milk Photo Center (50 Scott St.). The opening reception is from 1-4pm, with remarks by Jane Reed, Sandra S. Phillips (senior photography curator for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), and Stéphane Ré (Attaché Culturel for the Consulat Général de France à San Francisco) at 2pm. The exhibit runs through February 28th.
The Harvey Milk Photo Center’s gallery is open to the public Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-8:30pm, and Saturdays and Sundays from noon-4pm.
