Imogen Cunningham (American, 1883–1976). Nude, 1923. Gelatin silver print, 6 15/16 x 9 1/2 in. (17.6 x 24.2 cm). Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, Purchase. © (1923), 2010 The Imogen Cunningham Trust, www.ImogenCunningham.com
The bodies featured in this sensuous image are those of the photographers Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston, who had been linked romantically and professionally several years before they posed for the photographer Imogen Cunningham in Weston’s Glendale, California, studio. Cunningham documented the pair’s connectedness in this precisely framed composition of two bodies in responsive contact. A daring subject for any artist (let alone a young woman) in twenties America, Cunningham’s Nude reaffirmed the equation of physical contact and creative agency.
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