Early in her career, Louise Dahl-Wolfe photographed William Edmondson,
a self-taught sculptor who used discarded limestone to create highly original
and nuanced tombstones, human figures, and “critters” he believed were divinely
inspired. Dahl-Wolfe’s photographs brought his work to the attention of a wider
audience, including Museum of Modern Art founding director Alfred Barr, who
organized a solo exhibition of Edmondson’s work in 1937—the museum’s first for
an African American artist. Dahl-Wolfe would ultimately gain fame as a fashion
photographer, but in later years she claimed to have always preferred straight
portraits.