This image of the photographer's mother, Susan Elizabeth Johnson Cunningham, dates from an early Pictorialist phase when Cunningham was much influenced by the group gathered around Alfred Stieglitz. She described her mother as a gentle, quiet woman who 'never expressed an opinion of any kind' and was totally devoted to her family. Cunningham successfully escaped this form of voluntary imprisonment and became one of the first women in the history of photography to make a living from her work. As the photographer noted, she had 'a skill with the camera' which she was 'not willing to sacrifice to maternity'.