Some of my favorite photographers

Imogen Cunningham

"Frida Kahlo, Painter."

1931

This striking image of Frida Kahlo was taken during Frida and Diego Rivera's visit to the San Francisco Bay Area. Dressed in traditional Mexican attire, this print captures Frida's beauty and intensity.

Magnolia Blossom, 1925

Imogen made this image for her own pleasure. With three small children in the house, she said she had "one hand in the dishpan, the other in the darkroom."

Imogen Cunningham was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. She began her photographic studies at the University of Washington and went on to become one of photography's early pioneers and commenced what became one of the longest photographic careers in the history of the medium.
In the 1920's, Cunningham turned her attention to artistic nudes of friends and family and the study of plant forms found in her garden. The results are staggering; an amazing body of work comprised of bold, contemporary forms.

Double click any image to enlarge.

Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, and early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography. He helped develop the 'street photography' or 'real life reportage' style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. He founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, which in turn created the Museum of Modern Art's department of photography.

Edward Weston

"I want the stark beauty that a lens can so exactly render presented without interference of artistic effect."

Diane Arbus

Frequently referred to as The Artist of the Freak Show.

This ethical question has been applied to her work: Is it wrong to seek out and photograph people at their worst, when the apparent motives are a compulsion to capture images of the down-and-out, and in the process make a name for oneself and earn a living or profit?

"Freaks was a thing I photographed alot...There's a quality of legend about freaks. Like a person in a fairy tale who stops you and demands that you answer a riddle. Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats."...Diane Arbus.

Cathy Cade

from A Lesbian Photo Album, 1987.

"I wanted to do a book on lesbian mothering but I never got to, and when I couldn't do a book I said 'I'm going to take some of my favorite images, and I'm going to print them on cloth and embroider the cloth onto diapers'. The great thing about it is, I hang it up on a clothes line with old fashioned clothes pins - I can hang up an exhibit in 20 minutes - which means that I can hang it up for a one day event. I have it in the works to expand it." Cathy Cade.

Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz (American, b. 1949), "Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990", chromogenic print, photograph © Annie Leibovitz, from Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990–2005.

Leibovitz said that she doesn't have two lives, career and personal, but has one where assignments and personal pictures are all part of her works.

2010: Grace Rides

Most Saturdays you will find Grace 'at the barn' riding her favorite horse, Silly--short for Silhouette. She takes lessons and sometimes gets to take a trail ride down the cliffs to the beach. Here are some shots in the main arena.

Wicked

Long before Dorothy flew in, two girls meet in the Land of Oz. Elphaba, born with green skin, is smart, strong-willed and misunderstood. Meanwhile, her college roommate Glinda is beautiful, ambitious, shallow, and yet, loved by all. It is the story of a great friendship...two women who intially clash, and who ultimately become very important in each other's lives. It is a story of becoming your true self.

All is not well in the Land of Oz. The Wizard's secret police are everywhere harassing Oz's citizen's--especially the animals, which have been threatened with exile. Elphaba in this play becomes a post-modern animal right's activist. You find out how Glinda and Elphaba came about...in the most intelligent, witty and sophisticated way!

To celebrate Auntie Nancy's 60th birthday, Grace, Nancy and I went to see Wicked at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco. It was Grace's second time, so she was able to help us with some of the complicated plot turns and character developments. It was just fantastic, and I already want to see it again!