19 Facts About Judy Dater

Judith Rose Dater is an American photographer and feminist.

Judy Dater is celebrated for her 1974 photograph, Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite, featuring an elderly Imogen Cunningham, one of America's first woman photographers, encountering a nymph in the woods of Yosemite.

Judy Dater was born in 1941 in Hollywood and grew up in Los Angeles.

Judy Dater's 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.

Judy Dater 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.

In 1964, Judy 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.

Three years later, Judy Dater published Imogen Cunningham: A Portrait, containing interviews with many of Cunningham's photographic contemporaries, friends, and family along with photographs by both Judy Dater and Cunningham.

Judy 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.

Judy Dater often creates characters that embody the conscious and unconscious concerns that women have.

Judy Dater worked only in black-and-white photography until 1979, when she began some work in color.

Judy Dater received two National Endowment for the Arts individual artist grants in 1976 and 1988.

Judy Dater's career has been long and varied, combining teaching, creating books, traveling abroad and conducting workshops, making prints, videos, and photographing continually.

Judy Dater uses photography as an instrument for challenging traditional conceptions of the female body.

At a time when female frontal nudity was considered risque Judy Dater pushed the boundaries by taking pictures of the naked female body.

Judy Dater began taking photographs in the 1960s and she is still taking photographs today.

Judy Dater has taken portraits in the Southwestern desert and posed as female stereotypes in a more obvious display of activism.

Judy Dater was influenced by the vital cultural intersection of photography and feminism, and the second wave of feminism which started in the 1960s and lasted up till the 1980s.

Judy Dater effectively conveyed these themes and delivered, through her photography, the stories of women's lives, relationships, and personal emotions.

For example, in her photograph titled, My Hands, Death Valley, Judy Dater presents the theme of feminism through the placement of the artist's hands on the car's glass window; her hands are crinkled, which is a sign of aging.