ABOUT THE TRUST
The Trust was Imogen's idea...
In her nineties, Imogen conceived the Trust as a means to ensure her work would continue engaging with the world. Ever forward-thinking, she refused to let her photographs languish in storage, inaccessible to those who might study, exhibit, and cherish them.
Through the Trust, she envisioned remaining an active voice in the photography community, enabling her work to reach new audiences through exhibitions, publications, and thoughtful acquisitions.
Today, the Imogen Cunningham Trust serves as the definitive archive of her photographic legacy, meticulously preserving both prints and negatives. As a family-operated institution, we offer Estate and original lifetime prints to collectors and museums worldwide, while facilitating exhibitions and licensing reproductions that honor Imogen's enduring artistic vision.
Meg Partridge, Imogen's granddaughter and Director of the Trust, discovered her passion for photography as a child in her father Rondal Partridge's darkroom, mesmerized by images emerging on silver paper as she gently rocked the developer tray.
As a teenager, she worked as a young assistant to Imogen, spotting her prints and gaining intimate knowledge of her grandmother's professional practice and artistic vision.
In the 1980s, Meg turned to filmmaking, working as a cinematographer and focusing her own documentary work on her extended family of photographers. Her directorial debut, Portrait of Imogen (1988), earned an Academy Award nomination and drew inspiration from audio recordings between Imogen and her son Rondal. This success led to two additional films: A Visual Life, honoring the extraordinary work of her godmother Dorothea Lange, and Outta My Light, exploring eight decades of photography by her father Rondal.
Meg's long relationship with both Imogen and her artistic legacy, combined with comprehensive knowledge of the family archive, positioned her naturally to assume leadership of the Trust, where she continues sharing Imogen Cunningham's remarkable body of work with the world.