Judy Dater Art

B. 1941 - Judy Dater was born in Hollywood in 1941 and has been making photographs for 30 years. Judy Dater grew up in Los Angeles and studied art there, moving to San Francisco where she took a photography course with Jack Welpott (1923-). In 1964 she met Imogene Cunningham whose life and work greatly inspired her. For some years Judy Dater worked with Jack Welpott (who became her second husband) on photographs of women, resulting in 1975 in the publication of their joint book, women and other visions. Dater went on to write a study with Cunningham.

In the period around her divorce from Jack Welpott she created a series of self-portraits examining her angst. Recently she has been working in Italy photographing Roman Statues and contemporary Italians. Self-portraits are also a Dater staple. She has made several self-portraits throughout her career. These can be quite playful and also somber. "The self-portraits came out of the portraits of other people. Pictures of other people are always sort of a self-portrait. They are a reflection of myself. I never can remove myself from the pictures of the people that I'm taking."