Daily Inspiration Quote by Imogen Cunningham

There is something bracingly modern in the way Cunningham frames the line as both refusal and boundary: not just “not for a man,” but not for anyone. The first clause acknowledges the oldest cultural script in the book - feminine self-erasure dressed up as romance - and then snaps it in half. By widening the target from “a man” to “anybody,” she’s not merely rejecting a bad boyfriend or a melodramatic cliché; she’s rejecting the idea that a woman’s life is collateral, tradable for love, duty, art, or approval.

Context matters. Cunningham came of age when women were routinely cast as muses, wives, caretakers - supporting roles to male genius. As a photographer working through the early-to-mid 20th century, she built a serious career in a field that was technical, public, and often gatekept. That backdrop gives the quote its bite: it’s not a romantic aside, it’s a credo of authorship. The self she refuses to sacrifice is the self that makes the work.

The subtext is also a quiet indictment of emotional blackmail. “Kill myself” can be read literally, but it also gestures toward a slower kind of death: shrinking your ambition, swallowing your anger, living in permanent apology. Cunningham’s phrasing has the clean, unsentimental clarity of someone who has watched women be praised for disappearing. She’s saying the highest form of love isn’t martyrdom; it’s staying alive, intact, and answerable to no one’s storyline but your own.