Clouds
1940 · Gelatin silver print
7 × 9 5/8" (17.8 × 24.4 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Alma Lavenson
Artist
Photography
Representation
None documented
2
Institutional Exhibitions
4
Works in Collection
10
Assets Indexed
0
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
70%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
Movements
No movements recorded
Related Artists
No edges recorded
Influence Graph
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Selected Institutional Exhibitions
View all exhibitions →No image
The Family of Man
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1955
No image
Image of Freedom
Museum of Modern Art, New York
1941–1942
About
Why this artist matters now
Alma Lavenson was an American photographer known for her sharp-focus landscape and architectural studies made primarily in California during the 1930s and 1940s. Working in the tradition of Group f/64, she employed contact printing and large-format cameras to achieve precise detail and tonal range in her images of natural formations, industrial structures, and vernacular buildings. Her work emphasized the formal geometry inherent in both natural and built environments, rendered with technical precision and compositional clarity. Lavenson's photographs remain understudied in comparison to her male contemporaries, though her archive constitutes a significant document of mid-century California visual culture.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 26d ago
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Medium
Photography
Related Artists
6 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (4)
Record
Images
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Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
Record