She began experimenting with darkroom techniques that would enable her to produce the unique and dark imagery that would later become a hallmark of her work. Some appear to have been influenced by Man Ray (1890-1976) and especially California’s William Mortensen (1897-1965), an ardent proponent of creative pictorialism. Mortensen’s series of technical books and his school of photography in Laguna Beach had a wide-ranging effect on the pictorialists of her generation. (http://chroniclesofamber.tumblr.com/post/140760045129/swirl-ca-1940-virna-haffer-1899-1974-had)