Chronology of Imogen Cunningham

12 April 1883 Imogen Cunningham was born in Portland, Oregon. Her father named her after the heroine of Shakespeare's Cymberline. He encouraged her to read before she entered school and paid for art lessons every summer.

1903 Imogen Cunningham 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.

1905 Imogen Cunningham ordered a camera from a mail order correspondence school and took one of her first self-portraits, an almost nude photograph of herself in a secluded part of the University of Washington campus. Her father built her a darkroom in the woodshed, a darkroom lit only by a candle in a red box.

1907 Imogen Cunningham's thesis when she graduated from the University of Washington with a major in chemistry was titled “Modern Processes of Photography.”

1907 After graduation Imogen worked in the Seattle portrait studio of Edward S. Curtis the photographer who produced the twenty volumes of “The North American Indian.” Here she learned the techniques of platinum printing.

1909 Imogen's college sorority, Pi Beta Phi, awarded her a grant of $500 to study photographic chemistry in Dresden. Her thesis, published in Germany, “Uber Selbstherstellung von Platinpapieren fur braune Tone,” translates to “About Self-Production of Platinum Papers for Brown Tones.” In this paper she urged the use of hand-coated paper for platinum prints, as much more convenient and easier to handle than commercial paper.

1910 Returning from Germany, Imogen opened a portrait studio in Seattle. There, she was the only photographer who was a charter member of the Society of Seattle Artists. Imogen Cunningham exhibited frequently in Seattle, often soft focus photograhs of romantic tableaux she and her friends staged.

1913 Imogen Cunningham published "Photography as a Profession for Women,” an article urging women to take up careers in the professions. not to outdo men, but to try to do something for themselves. She held this view throughout her life.

1914 Her first one-person exhibition was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

1915 Imogen Cunningham married Seattle etcher, Roi Partridge. Their son, Gryffyd, was born. She closed her studio and moved with Roi to California where their twin sons, Rondal and Padraic, were born. With three young sons and life as a faculty wife, her photography was largely confined to photographing her children and the plants in her garden.

1921 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.

1923 Imogen made her first double-exposure photgraph, a photograph of her hard-working mother with a crown of silver spoons.

1929 Ten of her photographs were exhibited in the prestigious Film and Foto Exhibtion in Stuttgart, Germany. Imogen Cunningham also had a local exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum.

1931 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.

1932 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.

1934 Imogen and Roi were divorced. Imogen Cunningham was invited to New York to work for Vanity Fair but she soon returned to California. Imogen Cunningham travelled with Dorothea Lange and Paul Taylor to document a lumber co-operative, beginning a life-long series of what might now be called street photography.

1935 Imogen Cunningham worked again in Seattle and had a one-person exhibition at the Dallas Art Museum.

1936 A one-person exhibition of her work was shown at the E. B. Crocker Art Gallery in Sacramento, California.

1940s Imogen Cunningham began to photograph in color.

1941 Her photographs were included in the Photographers Exhibition at Golden Gate International Exposition, Treasure Island, San Francisco.

1941-4 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.

1947 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.

1960 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.

1962 Imogen experimented with Polaroid film.

1964 The Library of Congress purchased a collection of her work and the photographic publisher, Aperture, published a monograph of her work.

1967 Imogen Cunningham was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1968 Imogen Cunningham was awarded an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by the California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland.

1970 Imogen Cunningham was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to print from her early negatives. The University of Washington Press published her first book, “Imogen Cunningham: Photographs.” A major exhibition was held at the Witkin Gallery in New York City. The Smithsonian Institution purchased a major collection of her work.

1972 A revival of the Group f.64 Exhibition opened at the University Art Museum in Berkeley, California.

1973 On her ninetieth birthday, the San Francisco Art Commission declared her Artist of the Year. The Metropolitan Museum of New York held an Imogen Cunningham exhibition. The Witkin Gallery celebrated her birthday with a second exhibition..

1974 The University of Washington awarded Imogen the Alumna Summa Laude Dignata award. Her second book, “Imogen!” was published by the University of Washington Press. An exhibition, "Images of Imogen, 1903-1973," was held at the University of Washingtons' Henry Art Gallery. Imogen donated the majority of her papers and records to the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

1975 Imogen organized The Imogen Cunningham Trust to care for and continue the conservation, exhibition and promotion of her work.

23 June 1976 Imogen died in San Francisco.