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Partridge, Elizabeth

Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham

40 pp. | Viking | August, 2025 | Trade ISBN 9781984835185 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 9781984835208 $10.99
(1) K-3 Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976) was born into a large, loving family in the Pacific Northwest at the tail end of the nineteenth century. As a young girl, she was drawn to artistic pursuits: first drawing, then painting, but it wasn’t until she read a newspaper article about a female photographer that she found her true calling in life. Her father, who had nurtured her creativity throughout childhood, built her a darkroom for developing photographs. At long last, she had found the medium that suited her best, as described in Partridge’s captivating text. “There it was, right in the photographs, all the soft cadence of the poetry, all the beauty, all the feelings she carried deep inside her. Nothing was missing.” She built her passion for photography into a celebrated career yielding a large body of diverse work that ranged from celebrity portraits to experimental and innovative techniques. Shimizu’s illustrations, ink on watercolor paper with digital coloring, perfectly capture the historical period through clothing, furniture, and equipment. More importantly, they also capture Cunningham’s indomitable spirit. An author’s note reveals Cunningham to be Partridge’s paternal grandmother and provides ­additional, fascinating personal context and details, including ten of Cunningham’s black-and-white photographs; endnotes and a timeline are also appended.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

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