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Lot Essay
Essentially self-taught, Alma Lavenson came to photography as an enthusiastic amateur during the early 1920s and quickly found recognition amoung her peers through entries in national and international competitions and exhibitions. By the early 1930s she had made the acquaintance of Imogen Cunningham, Consuelo Kanaga and Edward Weston and in 1932 was included in the historic exhibition "Group f/64" at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. By 1933 she was recognized with one-person shows at The Brooklyn Museum and the M.H. de Young.
Made by Lavenson in 1932, Self-Portrait was first titled "Photographer at Work" when it was included along with three of her other works in the international exhibition "Showing of Hands" at the M.H. de Young that same year. It was not until 1979, when Lavenson was given a retrospective exhibition by the California Museum of Photography, traveling to three venues, that she renamed the work as a self-portrait.
This image has become the most well-known and reproduced work of her career. It was used as the leitmotif for Naomi Rosenblum and Barbara Tannenbaum's exhibition A History of Women Photographers which opened at the New York Public Library in the fall of 1996 and traveled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California and Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio throughout 1997.
There are four known vintage prints of this image, including one in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and three in private collections.
Made by Lavenson in 1932, Self-Portrait was first titled "Photographer at Work" when it was included along with three of her other works in the international exhibition "Showing of Hands" at the M.H. de Young that same year. It was not until 1979, when Lavenson was given a retrospective exhibition by the California Museum of Photography, traveling to three venues, that she renamed the work as a self-portrait.
This image has become the most well-known and reproduced work of her career. It was used as the leitmotif for Naomi Rosenblum and Barbara Tannenbaum's exhibition A History of Women Photographers which opened at the New York Public Library in the fall of 1996 and traveled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California and Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio throughout 1997.
There are four known vintage prints of this image, including one in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and three in private collections.