Imogen Cunningham: On the Body

Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976) was one of photography's early pioneers, a Seattle-based virtuoso whose work significantly contributed to the acceptance of the medium as an art form. Imogen Cunningham: On the Body is the third in a series of books by Richard Lorenz on her work and surveys Cunningham's images of the human form. The sensuous subjects she photographed are sculpted by brilliant sunlight and reveal both the universal and the unique aspects of the body. A nude self-portrait is one of her earliest photographs and reveals her liberal acceptance of the nude as a moral and artistic art form. Along with a chronology of Cunningham's life and a selected bibliography, an illustrated essay accompanies the plates and discusses Cunningham's interest in the human form, influences on her work, and comparable images by other photographers. With more than one hundred photographs that have never before been published, Imogen Cunningham: On the Body is truly the first monograph to present a full-bodied assessment of Cunningham's figure studies.