Their direct, or “straight,” photographic approach eschewed compositional manipulation in favor of recording, and certainly this influence can be seen in Shell Collection. By 1932 she would be a charter member of the West Coast Group f.64, whose members favored sharp, unfiltered, and unmanipulated imagery. These distinctly rendered, close up, elemental, and lush renderings of plant life were first shown in the landmark Film und Foto exhibit in Stuttgart in 1929. Her flora and fauna studies of the 1920s and 30s are often associated with this shift. This duality characterizes much of her work.Ĭunningham’s earliest photography was Pictorialist in nature, but after a 1923 meeting with Edward Weston, she began to favor a modernist approach. Cunningham’s approach in this elegant still life is emblematic of the modernist aesthetic that she is known for and championed, and also a work that hints at abundance, one that is evocatively sensual. He printed the photographs and produced sets for subscribers.Ĭunningham’s Shell Collection 3 features an array of textures and values, including detail-rich dark grays and blacks and luminous, glittering highlights. Lincoln began working on this series in the early 1890s and finished it in 1914. In many ways a precursor to later, “straight” landscape photography prominent on the West Coast, Lincoln’s quiet botanical studies both elevate his subject matter as well as elegantly reveal the plants’ detailed, quiet complexities. Lincoln’s spare aesthetic contrasted with the Photo-Secessionist’s concurrent embrace of Pictorialism, and instead his clean images can be seen within the context of the American Arts & Crafts movement (his work was published in Gustav Stickley’s The Craftsman, where they received warm praise). He had previously been a drummer boy during the Civil War and a page in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, but now largely made his living photographing large yachts and estates, as well as the burgeoning Berkshire “summer cottages.” Edwin Hale Lincoln moved to the Berkshire area in 1893, less than 10 years after taking up photography.
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