Imogen Cunningham often found portrait photography and sitters who would not let their guard down exasperating. She preferred to make uncommissioned photographs of her friends and fellow artists and photographers in the San Francisco area, such as David Park. Park settled in California while working for the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project in the 1930s and, like Cunningham, taught at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute). Along with Richard Diebenkorn, Park was a leading figure among the Bay Area Figurative painters.

Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976)
Gelatin silver print, 1958
Published December 1989
Imogen Cunningham Trust
©1978 The Imogen Cunningham Trust

Portrait of the Art World: A Century of ARTnews Photographs
National Portrait Gallery/Smithsonian Institution

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