(The Work of Imogen) Cunningham, Cameras, and Commies

Imogen Cunningham Graduates College, 1907

In 1907, Imogen Cunningham graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in chemistry. Since these were the days long before anyone could be a photographer, she would have concentrated on photography processing and the chemicals used during the era when writing her thesis. Her interest in photography began when she was 18 years old, but wasn't solidified until 1906. Following her graduation, she spent time honing her craft and lived in Dresden (Germany), Seattle (Washington), and San Francisco (California). In a time when women were expected to be not much more than baby factories, it shows just how driven Cunningham was that she not only attended college, but studied a real subject -- like chemistry -- to earn her degree. It also demonstrates that she had the intelligence required to study in this field, but that her family had the means to pay for her studies.

Her graduation would have marked the start of a long career which continued until her 1976 death. During her travels and work, she was able to meet many other creative types, and spent time photographing them. One of her models was the painter Jane Foster (later Zlatovski), and her 1939 photo in the next portion of this timeline of her is the cornerstone of this exhibit.

This image (1909) was chosen for several reasons. It is notable that Cunningham was both the model of the portrait and the photographer. It's a selfie! But really, the the main one is to illustrate how women as a whole were expected to present themselves in that era. Cunningham's visage holds a dour expression and her hair is pinned up. Her (likely) heavy and uncomfortable dress fabric is crowned at the neck with a high, possibly starched, collar that would have been in vogue in the Victorian Era. The focal point of her neck area is an oval pendant that would have been worn by women of a certain class in this time. 

Image Source:

Cunningham, Imogen. (untitled self-portrait). 1909. Viewed 19 Apr 2023.

Bolsheviks Buddy Up with Jane Foster (Allegedly)

Jane Foster, the floating model in the main image for this exhibit, was born in 1912 and died in 1979. The photo attached to this choronology entry is of Foster in 1940 and was taken by Cunningham.

Foster was a painter, socialite, and maybe even a spy for both the limeys and the reds? Briefly in 1938, she joined the Communist Party in the United States, and was supposedly recruited by the USSR to act as a spy around the same time. This event would have been slightly before her 1939 work with Imogen Cunningham. She went on to work for the British OSS from 1943 to 1946 and was later indicted in 1957 with her twice-married (to her) second husband, George Zlatovski.

Although they were indicted in 1957, they were living abroad in France. They denied the allegations, and were never extradited to the United States to face charges for their purported espionage on behalf of those damn dirty Reds. In the years that followed, it was never made clear whether they were guilty or not, but keep in mind that partisan hack and complete dirtbag, Joseph McCarthy spent much of the postwar era scaring people about people who were commies. A fun fact about Jane Foster is there's a connection with her to the famous American chef, Julia Child, and her husband, Paul Child. Julia worked for the OSS during World War II, and was friends with Jane Foster. 

I mean, did they really do anything that bad even if they were spies? This was what Time magazine alleged in 1957:
"George (code name: "Rector") was not so active as his wife, mostly gathered information on refugees. As a team, they collected information on the "sexual and drinking habits" of U.S. personnel stationed in Austria so that the Russians could use it to blackmail Americans."

Sounds to me like they just liked to party.

Image Source:
Cunningham, Imogen. Jane Foster, Painter. 1940. https://www.imogencunningham.com/privateviews/dfb52b76fc915bf9723d29/3886-imogen-cunningham-jane-foster-painter-1940/ Links to an external site. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.

Jane, Alice, and Imogen

So for this last entry, I am going to have a bit of fun and play off of the main image (lake) with commentary on the attached one. I was never able to figure out how Cunningham and Foster met, or how close they were. But regardless, they're both women who were occupying a creative space that was generally held by men. Cunningham was a photographer and Foster a painter (and maybe also a spy?), so there was likely a deep bond there -- even if it was only on a professional or creative level.

In the image for this entry, Cunningham’s presence is felt and (finally) seen in comparison to the main exhibit photo, where she just "appeared" as a shadow with Jane. Alice, on the other hand, is likely Foster's model for one or both of the paintings in the photo. But there's some fun metacommentary (?) here: Cunningham with her model Foster, who perhaps is with her model, Alice. Layers. Like an onion. What does this mean? Probably nothing.

Or: if Alice is not one of the models immortalized by Jane’s brush, who is she in the photo? Could one of the shadows that appear in this photo be of someone named Alice who was in the room with Foster and Cunningham? This final picture was chosen by me because it seemed like an evolution from the first photo “of” Cunningham and Foster.

There are all sorts of philosophical rabbit holes (or maybe entrances to Plato's Cave) that I can get my foot stuck into here and fall over with, but I’ll leave while I'm ahead. Is a shadow a representation of a person, or is it the person?

Image Source:

Cunningham, Imogen. Jane and Alice and Imogen. 1940. https://www.imogencunningham.com/artworks/categories/51/2248-imogen-cunningham-jane-and-alice-and-imogen-1940/ Links to an external site. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.