Cropping originally concentrated on placing the
primary image in a central position, either in the
middle of the frame or in the ‘‘golden triangle’’
classically perceived as an aesthetically strong
position, clearly adhering to classical concepts of
painting, especially portraiture, architectural de-
sign, and sculptural technique. A general principle
for the use of space is that it should not occupy
more than a third of the photo. Under the influ-
ence of graphic design and advertising, and the
quickly changing visual bytes of cable television,
in particular MTV, cropping techniques have
altered radically. Cropping has become an art
form in itself, drawing attention to an artist’s
method and personality, and is now widely
accepted as a means of delivering a postmodern
point of view with any image. Dislodging the
image from a hierarchically powerful position in
the centre of any given frame, the desired image
might be cropped so severely that the subject (for
instance, a person’s face) is only partially revealed,
dominated by the matrix, or removed altogether.
RoyBaum
Seealso:Architectural Photography; CompositionIMOGEN CUNNINGHAM
American
Imogen Cunningham’s photography spans 70 years
of the twentieth century during which photography
became the new way of seeing and interpreting the
world. As a master photographer whose compel-
ling portraits of diverse personalities such as Her-
bert Hoover and Martha Graham appeared in
Vanity FairandAperture, she was not interested
in developing a philosophy or theory of photogra-
phy, but was an extremely talented and innovative
female artist who strove to search for reality
through her lens. Her involvement with her art is
reflected in her prolific portfolio, which displays
her important role in the history of twentieth-cen-
tury photography.
Cunningham was born on April 12, 1883 in
Portland, Oregon. During her youth, her parents
nurtured her artistic talents by paying for sum-
mer art lessons. Her interests turned toward
photography, and she began experimenting while
studying chemistry at the University of Washing-
ton in Seattle in 1903. Although there was no
official photography department, she learned
chemistry as a basis for further study of photo-
graphy. In 1905, she began experimenting with a
4 5 inch format camera that she ordered from
a mail order correspondence school. She made
her first portraits in 1906—one of which was
her own nude body in a field on the university
campus, ‘‘Self-Portrait’’ (1906). To pay for her
expenses, she worked as a secretary and made
slides for botanists. Her father continued to
encourage her, and he built a darkroom for her
in a woodshed in which the only light was a
candle in a red box. She graduated in 1907 with
a major in chemistry; her thesis was entitled ‘‘The
Scientific Development of Photography.’’ She
then worked for two years for Edward S. Curtis,
known for his photographic study The North
American Indian; from him she learned platinum
printing techniques and how to retouch negatives.
Two events that led her to focus on photography
as a career occurred between 1907 and 1910. The
first was an article she read in April 1907 about the
work of New York photographer Gertrude Ka ̈seb-
ier in a periodical calledThe Craftsman.Ka ̈sebier’s
studies of mother and child deeply moved Cun-
ningham, and the article’s point that photography
could capture an emotional moment—that it was
more than just a scientific chemical process—
affected the young artist immensely. The second
event was a trip she took to Dresden in the fall of
1909 after receiving a fellowship from her uni-
versity sorority. In Germany, she studied with
photo chemist Robert Luther at the Technische
Hochschule and viewed theInternational Photo-
graphic Expositionwhere she had her first chance
to view some of the best European and American
photographic art of the time. Although she tookCROPPING