Judy Dater

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Twinka Thiebaud

Judy Dater (born June 21, 1941 in Hollywood ) is an American photographer and feminist . Probably her best-known photo is Imogen and Twinka at Yosemite , which was taken in 1974. The picture shows an elderly lady ( Imogen Cunningham ), one of the first American female photographers, to meet a nymph from the woods of Yosemite National Park . The nymph is the model Twinka Thiebaud . The photo was published in 1976 in Life magazine , in the issue about the first 200 years of American women.

Her photographs, such as her self-portrait series, have also been exhibited at the J. Paul Getty Museum .

Life

Judy Dater was born in Hollywood in 1941 as the only child of Ben Lichtenfeld and Lillian Korson Lichtenfeld from Philadelphia and grew up in Los Angeles . Her father was the owner of a movie theater, which sparked Judy Dater's interest in photography as a child and influenced her pictures. Before Judy Dater went to San Francisco , she studied art at UCLA between 1959 and 1962 . In 1962 she married Dennis Dater and divorced in 1963. At the San Francisco State University finally completed in 1963 and her Bachelor 1966 her master's degree in photography. While studying photography, she met Jack Welpott , whom she married in 1971. In 1975, the joint work Women and Other Visions was published. In 1977 the two divorced.

In 1964, Dater met Imogen Cunningham at a workshop on the life and work of Edward Weston in Big Sur Hot Springs, which later became the Esalen Institute . Dater was greatly inspired by Cunningham's life and work. They shared an interest in portraits and were friends until Cunningham's death (1976). Three years later, Dater published Imogen Cunningham: A Portrait , which, in addition to photographs of Dater and Cunningham, included interviews with photographic contemporaries, as well as friends and family members of Cunningham. Dater became a member of the West Coast School of Photography alongside Ansel Adams , Brett Weston , Wynn Bullock, and Cunningham. They all showed interest in Dater's work and encouraged her to embark on a career in photography.

Dater is also known for her self-portraits. She created characters that represented a woman's conscious as well as unconscious concerns. Her self-portrait series included titles such as Ms. Cling Free and Leopard Woman . She also photographed other women, mainly using natural light sources. Until 1979 she took photos exclusively in black and white. After that her first colored works appeared.

Other books by Dater include Judy Dater: Twenty Years (1986), Body and Soul (198), and Cycles (Japanese Version: 1992, American Version: 1994). In 1978 Dater received a Guggenheim grant . She also received two individual grants from the National Endowment for the Arts Foundation in 1976 and 1988 .

Judy Dater currently resides in Berkeley with her husband Jack B. von Euw . She has had a varied life teaching, writing books, traveling, holding workshops and continuously creating prints, videos and photographs.

photography

Judy Dater uses photography as a tool to challenge traditional ideas about the female body. Her early works were created parallel to the emergence of the women's movement and are associated with it. At a time when it was daring to show the naked female body, Dater photographed naked women and thus pushed the boundaries of what was accepted in society. However, it did so in a way in which it did not objectify subjects, often itself. Dater started photography in the 1960s and is still active today. Mark Johnstone, an Idaho resident who dater in the early 80s said of her, “During this time, she never got swayed by or indulged in trends, but moved with her own vision. She's one of the few successful women in the art world, especially photography, who never depended on ongoing academic support to fuel and expand her artistic exploration. " Although Dater repeatedly experimented with different compositions, the core messages of her photos remained relatively constant. Her photographs and her specialty, portraits, were recorded in black and white and later also in color. She photographed in the southwest of the USA and posed the female stereotypes in an activist way. In her portrait, Ms. Clingfree , published in 1982, she was the last to demonstrate with an arrangement of various cleaning items .

Dater was influenced by the cultural blending of photography and feminism and the second wave of feminism between 1960 and 1980. A lot changed in the 1980s and US politics became more conservative. The feminist movement subsided and some feminists became discouraged by sexist attitudes and behavior. With Dater's photographs and her lifestyle, she managed to go beyond conservative views and bring her views closer to her audience.

The photo series known as the self-portrait series and also one of their most famous photo series, which was taken in the 1980s, dealt with the topics of identity, feminism and the connection between humans and nature. Dater has managed to capture and represent a woman's life, relationships and personal emotions through her photographs. For example, Dater presents the theme of feminism in her photograph My Hands, Death Valley through the placement of the model's hands. Her hands are wrinkled and brittle, a sign of aging. The subject of personal identity is explored through the connection with feminism. The picture was taken in hazy Death Valley . The floors are dry and the weather has taken their hands with them. The model tries to open the window. The connection between humans and nature is made clear by the background landscape and the location of the recorded scene.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Claire Sykes: Judy Dater: Seeing and Being Seen . In: Serbin Communications (Ed.): Photographer's Forum . Fall 2012, p. 10-20 . ( static.squarespace.com ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ))
  2. ^ My Hands, Death Valley. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Nov. 29, 2014. (getty.edu)
  3. ^ Jules Heller, Nancy G. Heller: North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary . 1997, ISBN 0-8153-2584-3 , pp. 147 ( google.at ).
  4. ^ Judy Dater, James Enyeart: Judy Dater, Twenty Years. University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 1986. in Association with the De Saisset Museum, University of Santa Clara.
  5. ↑ a b c Amy Scott, William Deverell, Brian Bibby, Kate Nearpass Ogden, Jennifer A. Watts, Gary F. Kurutz, Jonathan Spaulding, Lauren Trainer: Yosemite Art of an American Icon . 2006, ISBN 0-520-24922-4 , pp. 197 .
  6. ^ Smith Andersen North: Judy Dater. Feb 20, 2015. (smithandersennorth.com)
  7. ↑ JUDY dater: Seeing and Being Seen. In: Photographer's Forum Magazine. Sept. 1, 2012. ( pfmagazine.com ( April 2, 2015 memento in the Internet Archive ))
  8. ↑ Ms. Clingfree. 1982. Self-Portraits Judy Dater. Feb. 18, 2015. ( judydater.com ( Memento from February 20, 2015 in the web archive archive.today ))
  9. ↑ Joan Mandle: How Political is the staff? Identity Politics, Feminism and Social Change. Colgate University, Nov. 30, 2014. (userpages.umbc.edu)
  10. ↑ Claire Sykes: Judy Dater: Seeing and Being Seen. In: Photographer's Forum. Fall 2012.
  11. ^ My Hands, Death Valley

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Dater, Judy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer and feminist
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Hollywood