Judy Dater

The photo was published in Life magazine in its 1976 issue about the first 200 years of American women. Her photographs, such as her Self-Portraiture sequence, were also exhibited in the Getty Museum.

Judy Dater studied at University of California, Los Angeles and San Francisco State University. Training under Jack Welpott is recorded. Residence is recorded at Los Angeles and San Francisco. Work by Judy Dater is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship and National Endowment for Democracy.

• Name — Judy Dater • Birth Name — Judith Rose Lichtenfeld • Born — 21 June 1941 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Education — UCLA • Alma Mater — San Francisco State University • Spouse — Jack Welpott, div. 1977 Jack B. von Euw

Dater was born in 1941 in Hollywood and grew up in Los Angeles. Her father owned a movie theater, so movies became the prism through which she viewed the world and they had a profound influence on her photography. She studied art at UCLA from 1959 to 1962 before moving to San Francisco and received a bachelor's degree in 1963 and a master's degree in 1966, both from San Francisco State University. It was there she first studied photography with Jack Welpott, whom she later married. In 1975, they published a joint work, titled Women and Other Visions. They were divorced in 1977. In 1964, Dater met the photographer Imogen Cunningham at a workshop focusing on the life and work of Edward Weston at Big Sur Hot Springs, which later became Esalen Institute. Dater was greatly inspired by Cunningham's life and work. They shared an interest in portraiture and remained friends until Cunningham's death in 1976. Three years later, Dater published Imogen Cunningham: A Portrait, containing interviews with many of Cunningham's photographic contemporaries, friends, and family along with photographs by both Dater and Cunningham. Dater became part of the community of the west coast school of photography, primarily represented by the photographers Ansel Adams, Brett Weston, Wynn Bullock and Cunningham. They all took an interest in her work and encouraged her to pursue photography as a career. Other books by Dater include Judy Dater: Twenty Years (1986), Body and Soul (1988), Cycles (Japanese version: 1992, American version: 1994), and Only Human: Judy Dater 1964 to 2016 Portraits and Nudes (2017). Dater is also known for her self-portraits. She often creates characters that embody the conscious and unconscious concerns that women have. Her self-portrait series includes titles like "Ms. Cling Free" and "Leopard Woman." She also does portraits of other women, using natural light. She worked only in black-and-white photography until 1979, when she began some work in color. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978. Dater also received two National Endowment for the Arts individual artist grants in 1976 and 1988. In 1998 she was a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. Judy Dater lives in Berkeley, California with her husband Jack B. von Euw. Her career has been long and varied, combining teaching, creating books, traveling abroad and conducting workshops, making prints, videos, and photographing continually.