She began ingesting pictures inside 1901 when researching photographic chemistry at a University of Wash. within Seattle. When survey overseas, she opened the studio inside Seattle inside 1910. She was better known for her frank portraits of renowned personalities, close-ups of flowers, & nudes. In the late 1920s she began her celebrated series of plant exposure. She was attracted to photography per act of Gertrude Kasebier.

Cunningham was one of a original members of the Group f/64.