Doris Ulmann occupies a unique place in the history of American photography. Trained at the Clarence White School, where she absorbed the principles of pictorialism, Ulmann later developed a deep appreciation for photogravure—likely influenced by her association with Alvin Langdon Coburn, the Frederic Goudys and the Kennerley Press, and their collaborations with Alvin Langdon Coburn.

Her artistic practice balanced between pictorialist and modernist sensibilities, yet her subjects—whom she called “Vanishing Types”—were rooted in pre-industrial traditions. Ulmann devoted her career to making dignified portraits of Shakers, Gullahs, Native Americans, rural African Americans, and Appalachian craftspeople. She believed these individuals embodied the cultural foundations of America at a time of rapid industrial and social transformation.

Though she experimented with rare early oil prints, Ulmann remained committed to platinum contact prints for exhibition and photogravure for her published portfolios. For her, photographs were not sociological documents but intimate art objects, celebrating the individuality and spirit of her sitters.

Working tirelessly until her death in 1934, Ulmann created a body of work that honors the worth of every human being and affirms the role of cultural diversity in American democracy.

Pencil signature "Doris Ulmann" to lower right corner. Circa 1925.