Alma Lavenson: Photographs

by Susan Ehrens (Editor)

Book Soft Cover. Book Very Good +. Lavenson, Alma (illustrator). 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. 108pp, 76 Fultone and 25 halftone images. With an introductory essay by Susan Ehrens, this is the first book devoted to the work of the intuitive and independent photographer Alma Lavenson. She took up the camera in 1918 as an amateur and developed from an accomplished pictorialist to an innovative fine art photographer, and the book traces her development over 60 years in her chosen medium.

106 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1990

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan Ehrens does a superb job presenting Alma Lavenson, an early Modernist photographer associated with the west coast Group f/64. Lavenson, who has long been underappreciated, was an avant garde photographer in the early 1930s focusing on industrial and architectural subjects highlighting their shapes, shadows, and reflections. Her self-taught talent came to the attention of Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and other members of Group f/64 and was so appreciated that she was invited to display her work with them. While Lavenson continued to create masterpieces throughout her life, after she married and had children, her work was dismissed by the male art elite and defined as a woman’s hobby. Today her work is becoming more widely collected as a result of the efforts of Susan Ehrens. The gorgeous book contains essays by Susan Ehrens and Jay McKean Fisher on Lavenson’s life and artistic career. The latter part of the book contains 53 pages of her photography in chronological order, followed by excerpts from Lavenson’s letters and lastly her extensive exhibition history and collections which hold her work. A must read for those interested in American women in art and Group f/64. Superbly done!