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.

        She has won so many awards, exhibitions and publications that trying to select some is near
impossible. She is one of Americas foremost photographers, with an international reputation for
her uniquely perceptive portraits of women and confrontational photographs of the nude. Judy
Dater uses large format cameras to make her portraits. Her 4x5 and 5x7 cameras create an air of
authority which lets her subjects know that a portrait by Dater is no snapshot. And her deliberate
style shows through clearly in her work.

        Dater relies on available light from an overhead skylight in her home studio. On sunny days,
she schedules portraits between 10 am and 2 p.m., using black felt as a backdrop. Her stripped down
technology compliments the intensely personal images she makes, relying on her rapport with the
subject rather than special effects. In her darkroom, Dater does all the work herself, processing
film and making prints, something relatively rare in this age of filmless cameras and ink jet
printers. Classic portraits and masterful printing puts Dater in a class all by herself. As much as
she is known for her portraits, Dater's long career has allowed her to experiment, trying out
different styles and techniques. Although her preferred camera is usually a large format 4x5, she
has worked with the Polaroid 20x24, digital cameras, Adobe PhotoShop image editing software,
and has also created photo based lithographic prints. Her photos, while firmly entrenched in a
classic portraiture, also exhibit a wide range of looks, from collages and multi-pane treatments
to pictures within pictures.

        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."