Johan Hagemeyer

(DUTCH, 1884 - 1962)

Johan Hagemeyer started out in American as a fruit farmer, and an introduction to Anne Brigman in 1916 by Alfred Stieglitz prompted a bold move in his photographic career; he opened his first portrait studio in Berkeley, California. He developed close friendships with Imogen Cunningham, Tina Modotti, and Edward Weston and in 1923 Hagemeyer built a studio in Carmel, California later establishing the town's first gallery. Despite Weston's influence, Hagemeyer chose not to join Group f.64: a group of seven 20th century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western viewpoint promoting a new Modernist aesthetic. Hagemeyer continued to make photographs and exhibit until illness and financial woes began to impede on his work.