01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - CONTEMPORARY & 20th C. Interpretation of the Bible! With Footnotes - 29

Imogen Cunningham, (American, 1883-1976)

Eve Repentant, 1910
Gelatin silver, printed later
11-1/4 x 8-1/8 inches (28.6 x 20.6 cm)

Private collection 

Eve is a figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. According to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, she was the first woman. In Islamic tradition, Eve is known as Adam's wife and the first woman although she is not specifically named in the Quran.

According to the second chapter of Genesis, Eve was created by God by taking her from the rib of Adam, to be Adam's companion. She succumbs to the serpent's temptation to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She shares the fruit with Adam, and as a result the first humans are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Christian churches differ on how they view both Adam and Eve's disobedience to God, and to the consequences that those actions had on the rest of humanity. Christian and Jewish teachings sometimes hold Adam and Eve to a different level of responsibility for the fall, although Islamic teaching holds both equally responsible. More on Eve

Imogen Cunningham (April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to the sharp-focus rendition of simple subjects.

It was not until 1906, while studying at the University of Washington in Seattle, that she was inspired to take up photography again by an encounter with the work of Gertrude Käsebier. With the help of her chemistry professor, Horace Byers, she began to study the chemistry behind photography and she subsidized her tuition by photographing plants for the botany department.

In 1907 Cunningham went to work for Edward S. Curtis in his Seattle studio, gaining knowledge about the portrait business and practical photography. She worked on his project of documenting American Indian tribes for the book The North American Indian

In 1909, Cunningham was awarded the Pi Beta Phi Graduate Fellowship. Using this fellowship, Cunningham traveled to Germany to study with Professor Robert Luther at the Technische Hochschule in Dresden, Germany. In May 1910, she finished her paper describing her process to increase printing speed, improve clarity of highlights tones, and produce sepia tones.

In Seattle, Cunningham opened a studio and won acclaim for portraiture and pictorial work. She became a sought-after photographer and exhibited at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences in 1913. In 1914, Cunningham's portraits were shown at An International Exhibition of Pictorial Photography in New York. Wilson's Photographic Magazine published a portfolio of her work.

In the 1940s, Cunningham turned to documentary street photography. In 1945, Cunningham was invited by Ansel Adams to accept a position as a faculty member for the art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts. 

Cunningham continued to take photographs until shortly before her death at age 93, on June 23, 1976, in San Francisco, California. 

Cunningham was named Imogen after the heroine of Shakespeare's Cymbeline. More on Imogen Cunningham

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