# @sfmoma on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DLAn6uMpbPt
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33376477-sfmoma-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/519b76da5f.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-06-17T17:08:50.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** SFMOMA (@sfmoma) — https://gondola.cc/sfmoma

## Caption

Imogen Cunningham found inspiration in her own backyard.

Cunningham studied photographic chemistry abroad before moving with her family to San Francisco in 1917. As a mother of three, she initially focused her photography close to home. She explained, “The reason I really turned to plants was because I couldn’t get out of my own backyard when my children were small...I started photographing what I had in my garden.” 

In the 1920s and 1930s, she frequently created close-up botanical photographs. In these works, she rendered plants and flowers with sculptural qualities, offering a graphic study of light and shadow, line and curve.

See her works in “Around Group f.64: Legacies and Counterhistories in Bay Area Photography” on Floor 3.

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[Imogen Cunningham, “Calla Leaves,” 1932, Collection of Gary B. Sokol © The Imogen Cunningham Trust; Imogen Cunningham, “Agave Americanus,” before 1929; printed ca. 1955, Collection SFMOMA, Gerda Dorfner Memorial Fund purchase © The Imogen Cunningham Trust; Imogen Cunningham, “Junk,” 1933, Collection SFMOMA, The Henry Swift Collection, gift of Florence Alston Swift © The Imogen Cunningham Trust] #ImogenCunningham #Photography #Botanicals #SFMOMA #SanFrancisco #BayArea

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 368
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## Tags

imogencunningham, photography, sanfrancisco, bayarea, sfmoma, botanicals

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