21 Facts About Consuelo Kanaga

Consuelo Delesseps Kanaga was an American photographer and writer who became well known for her photographs of African-Americans.

Consuelo Kanaga's father was a successful lawyer and judge in Ohio.

The last name "Consuelo Kanaga" is of Swiss origin, and a family genealogy traces its roots back at least 250 years.

Consuelo Kanaga spelled her first name "Consuela," at least in the 1920s and '30s, but it is generally listed now as Consuelo, a more common Spanish name.

In 1915 Consuelo Kanaga got a job as a reporter, feature writer and part-time photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Dorothea Lange later said that Consuelo Kanaga was the first female newspaper photographer she had ever encountered.

Stieglitz worked with Consuelo Kanaga to help transform her vision from photojournalism to a more artistic photographic style.

Consuelo Kanaga initially found work as a photographic retoucher, but within a few months she had her own darkroom and was printing the first of her many photos from Europe.

Consuelo Kanaga began to photograph him around her home, and as they talked she became captivated by the plight of African-Americans and their continuing fight against racism.

Consuelo Kanaga began plans for a portfolio of African Americans and interviewed several families in Harlem with whom she hoped to live while documenting their lives.

Consuelo Kanaga's photographs were printed in progressive publications of the time, including New Masses, Labor Defender, and Sunday Worker.

Consuelo Kanaga was actively photographing and exhibiting throughout the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Consuelo Kanaga finally seemed to have found the right romantic and creative partner in Putnam, and the two of them remained together for the rest of her life.

Consuelo Kanaga died virtually unknown on February 28,1978, but her talent endures.

Consuelo Kanaga was noted as a technician of the highest skills in the darkroom.

Consuelo Kanaga's portraiture included many well-known artists and writers of the 1930s and '40s, including Milton Avery, Morris Kantor, Wharton Esherick, Mark Rothko and W Eugene Smith.

Consuelo Kanaga, who was white, was one of the few photographers in the 1930s to produce artistic portraits of black people.

Consuelo Kanaga photographed black writers and intellectuals, among them Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.

Consuelo Kanaga's best-known image, "She Is a Tree of Life to Them," was given its title by Edward Steichen when he selected it for the landmark Family of Man exhibition in 1955.

Consuelo Kanaga continued photographing through the 1960s, including a series of photographs of civil rights demonstrations in Albany, Georgia, in 1963.

In 1974 Consuelo Kanaga had a one-person exhibition at the Lerner-Heller Gallery in New York and in 1976, a small but important retrospective at The Brooklyn Museum.