The Picture Book Buzz - Interview w/Elizabeth Partridge and Review of Imogen

Maria Marshall
Aug 25, 2025
9 min read

Elizabeth Partridge grew up equal parts tomboy and bookworm. There were lots of books around, lots of trees and animals and camping trips. There were also photographs everywhere, as she was right in the middle of a large, extended San Francisco Bohemian family of photographers. Some used their photographs to bear witness to the problems in our world, eager to create social change. Others wanted to capture moments of stillness and beauty. This was a world where creative muses flourished. Her muse gave her the joy of words.

Photo of author Elizabeth Partridge leaning against a tree.

Infusing Elizabeth’s writing are these yin-and-yang opposites of enjoying transcendent beauty and yet bearing witness to hard times. She writes about artists of all kinds: photographers, musicians, and painters. She’s drawn to pivotal moments in our American history that have been erased from our narrative.

Elizabeth was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Women’s Studies from UC Berkeley and later studied traditional Chinese medicine. She was an acupuncturist for more than twenty years before closing her medical practice to write full-time.

Today she lives in a three-generation household with kids, grandkids, cats, dogs, and a backyard full of fruit trees. Her home office is the quietest room in the house and she’s still part-tomboy and part-bookworm.

Collage of thirteen of Elizabeth Partridge's published books.

Elizabeth is the award-winning author of eighteen books, including Parks for the People: How Frederick Law Olmsted Designed America, illustrated by Becca Stadtlander (2022), Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam (2018), Dogtag Summer (2011), Marching for Freedom: Walk Together, Children, and Don’t You Grow Weary (2009), Big Cat Pepper, illustrated by Lauren Castillo (2009), Whistling Up the Dawn, illustrated by Anna Grossnickle Hines (2003), Kogi’s Mysterious Journey, illustrated by Aki Sogabe (2003), Moon Glowing, illustrated by Joan Paley (2002), Annie and Bo and the Big Surprise, illustrated by Martha Weston (2002), This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie (2002), Oranges on Golden Mountain, illustrated by Aki Sogabe (2001), Pigs Eggs, illustrated by Martha Weston (2000), and Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange (1998).

For more information about Elizabeth, see our earlier interview (here).

Her newest picture book, Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham, releases August 26^th.

Welcome Elizabeth, thank you so much for stopping back by to talk about your picture book and your writing.

Having written a number of nonfiction picture books, what is your research process? Did it change at all for Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham?

Usually, I head for the library when I decide on a book topic. I always need to dive in and make sure the person or subject is one I’d like to spend time writing about. But since Imogen was my grandmother I knew her pretty well, so of course that was my starting point.

I grew up across the bay from her in San Francisco. As a kid, I was often in and out of her house on Green Street in San Francisco. As a teenager, I used to take the bus to her house and spot prints for her as she prepared photos to send to clients. She could be gruff and peppery with others but was very tender with me and others close to her. We would have conversations about everything.

Black and white advertisement for the Academy Award nominated film Portrait of Imogen.

I also had hours of tapes my dad had done of Imogen talking about her life and her photography, some of which my sister Meg Partridge made into an Academy Award nominated film, Portrait of Imogen. And just getting to know Imogen’s photographs better helped me understand her more deeply.

What a gift to have those tapes, memories, and photographs and to be able to make them into a biography picture book! So, what spark of curiosity or interest caused you to want to write Imogen? By the way, I love the black and white image coming out of the camera on the cover!

Book cover - a red-haired woman in a long, full dress stands with a box camera on a stand taking a photograph of the landscape, with a black and white representation of the picture she is taking emerging from the camera.

I was always fascinated by Imogen’s father, Isaac Burns Cunningham. Both my father and his mother, Imogen, told many stories about him. He was a life-long vegetarian and a very compassionate man. He was also really smart. When he was quite old, he was learning mathematics, getting little handbooks in the mail every month, though he was earning a living selling apples from his orchard and cream and milk from his cow, Bossie. I really wanted to dive into how he supported Imogen’s dream to be a photographer when it was an incredibly unusual and risky career for women at the time.

He sounds very fascinating, as well. How long did it take from the first draft to publication for Imogen?

Honestly, I can’t remember. I spent a lot of time mulling over the idea. Once I actually sat down and wrote it, it didn’t take too long or require too much major editing.

That mulling, pre-writing period, can be so important. What was the toughest aspect of researching and/ or writing Imogen? And what was the most fun or fascinating part?

The most rewarding part of writing this book is sharing Imogen’s story with kids. She was a truly extraordinary person and a really brilliant photographer. The only tough part was wanting to make sure I got it right: have I done a good enough job? I just really wanted to honor her.

You always want to get it right, but I imagine there was additional pressure this time because of the closeness of Imogen to you and your family. When you first saw Yuko Shimizu’s illustrations did anything surprise or amaze you? Which is your favorite spread?

Internal image - on the left, a 90-year old man sitting on a pile of wood he's split with a translucent image of Imogen's hands holding the lens superimposed on top. On the right, a woman in a dress, with a box camera on a stand, with translucent lotus flowers surrounding her.

Text © Elizabeth Partridge, 2025. Image © Yuko Shimizu, 2025.

I was incredibly excited when I heard from my editor that Yuko had agreed to illustrate the book. And her artwork just astounds me. Some of my favorite spreads are when she gets imaginative, like on the cover (which you mentioned above) where we see what she is capturing in her shot. Yuko drew many of Imogen’s photos, including one that is really important to this story, an image of her father she titled My Father at Ninety. He is sitting on a stack of wood he just split. Yuko superimposed a graphic of the camera lens over Isaac's portrait.

The illustration is amazing! And that wood pile is super impressive, too. I can't imagine a 90-year-old chopping all that wood. Is there anything you want your readers to know about or gain from Imogen?

Imogen was truly a groundbreaking artist. I wanted to let kids know about her work, her career, and her willingness to forge her own path. I also made sure to include the old photographic process in some detail, just to blow kids minds. Taking a photo is so simple today, and it was a complex, very deliberate, time consuming and expensive process. Yuko was terrific about including the details of the cameras and darkroom with great accuracy.

It is a bit of a lost art. But it is so rewarding to watch an image appear on a blank piece of paper. Are there any projects you are working on now that you can share a tidbit with us?

I’m working on a MG/YA book on the artist Hung Liu. It’s a deep dive into a complex, intensely talented artist and her work, and the politics that shaped her art.

Interesting. Good luck with it. Last question, what animal or natural feature (place) do you want to learn more about? Why?

I am pretty much insatiably curious and find almost all animals and places and people interesting. Luckily, I get to explore so much of the world through research and writing.

Thank you, Elizabeth for stopping by and sharing your time and thoughts with us. It was wonderful to chat with you.

Thank you!

To find out more about Elizabeth Partridge, or contact her:

Website: https://www.elizabethpartridge.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elizabethpartridge

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elizabeth.partridge/

Review of Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham

This is a wonderful tribute to a creative, independent woman who from a young age had a drive to capture the light, movement, and wonder she witnessed all around her and a longing to make a living doing what she loved. It's a touching biography of a celebrated photographer, through the lens of her award-winning granddaughter.

Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham

Author: Elizabeth Partridge

Illustrator: Yuko Shimizu

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers (August 26, 2025)

Ages: 4-8

Nonfiction Biography

Themes:

Artist, biography, photography, independence, and observation.

Synopsis:

A picture book biography of the iconic photographer Imogen Cunningham by National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge.

Imogen Cunningham loved to observe the world. She noticed the colors in the woods outside her house and how light and shadows moved between the trees. She tried to capture this beauty on paper with pencils, but something was missing. One day she read about a woman in Paris who earned a living as a photographer, and she knew she was meant to do the same. With the support of her loving father, she then began her journey to become one of the most important photographers in America.

The life of iconic photographer Imogen Cunningham is brought vividly to life by National Book Award finalist Elizabeth Partridge, who also happens to be Cunningham’s granddaughter. With stunning illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Yuko Shimizu, Imogen captures the passion of the creative process with a unique and intimate perspective.

Opening Lines:

When Imogen was born in 1883,

her father named her after his favorite character in

a play by William Shakespeare. It was hard to get

ahold of books in those days, but he loved to read

and think and imagine.

What I LOVED about this book:

Born in the middle of ten children, Imogen delighted in spending evenings snuggled in her father's lap listening to him read poetry, As "the rhythm of his voice and the firelight made daydreamy pictures in her mind." The two sharing a bond of imagination and contemplation.

Internal spread - on the left, below a house perched on a hill in the woods, range thirteen chickens. On the right, sitting in a chair near the fireplace, a father holds his daughter in his lap as he reads poetry to her, with dark blue outlines of trees and white-capped mountains spread out behind them.

Yuko Shimizu's ink and digitally colored images beautifully play with perspective and expectations as they capture and demonstrate the creativity, vision, and artistry of Imogen. I love her use of blues and sepia tones to offset Imogen's (and her father's) red hair and produce the feel of old photographs. As a child, Imogen spent hours in the woods joyfully drawing. And fortunately, she had an enlightened teacher who encouraged Imogen's sketches, once her work was done. I love depiction of the one-room schoolhouse, it reminds me of stories by my great-grandmother when she was a teacher.

Internal image - a single room classroom with a pot-bellied wood-stove, a blackboard with alphabet in cursive, and a geometry lesson. a girl with fiery-red hair (sketching) and the teacher are near the blackboard across from a long table with six other kids doing their lessons.

But the pencil sketches couldn't capture what Imogen saw and felt. When she finally asked for a paint set, having battled and overcome her feelings of selfishness, her father, who had "a soft spot for his daughter with her red hair and her serious, stubborn ways," not only got her paints, but found her an art class. Imogen and her siblings were expected to choose careers to support themselves, but Imogen didn't want to be a traditional teacher, nurse or mother. When she discovered women were making a living with photography, she worked a nanny until she could buy a camera. I love how this image 'repeats' (or foreshadows) the cover. Seeing the image she is capturing 'projected' from the lens is so magical and intriguing.

Internal spread - a young girl, with fiery red hair looks through the view finder of a box camera on a tripod, as a brown and white image of a lake and the landscape she is seeing fans out from the lens.

Excited, she set off to finally capture what she saw and felt, to "bring out the shades of light and shadow within herself." This is a biography of a famous photographer, so you know she succeeds, but to discover how she succeeds and Yuko Shimizu's stunning portrayal of the rest of her journey and some of her own amazing photographs, you will have to check out the book for yourselves. But you will not be disappointed with her spirit, compassion, and artistry. A detailed author's note, from her granddaughter, Elizabeth Partridge, goes into greater depth on Imogene Cunningham's father and her life as a parent, artist, and grandmother. This stunning biography is a wonderful tribute and captures the ethereal interplay of light, shadow, and life which Imogen strove to capture in her phenomenal photography and encouragement of other women.

Resources:

Photo collage of a cardboard camera with "pictures" and a working pinhole camera.

make your own cardboard or pinhole camera. Draw your own images or what you see through the pinhole.

what would you take pictures of? If you have access to a camera or phone, experiment taking pictures of fun shapes, lights, or the same thing from different angles. What did you discover?

pair this with biographies of other photographers - Take a Picture of Me, James Van Der Zee! by Andrea Loney, illustrated by Keith Mallet, Dorothea Lange Photographs the Truth by Barb Rosenstock, illustrated by Gérard Dubois, Dorothea Lange: The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sarah Green, and Antsy Ansel: Ansel Adams, A Life in Nature by Cindy Jenson-Elliott, illustrated by Christy Hale.