Self-Portrait on Deserted Road
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Object Details
Artist/Maker
Judy Dater, American, born 1941
Date
1982
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Please contact the Museum for more information
Credit
Gift of Lucinda W. Bunnen for the Bunnen Collection
Accession #
1982.274
Description
Over the course of her career, Judy Dater has primarily photographed women, including herself. This work is from a series she made during ten trips to national parks in the West between 1980 and 1983, where she photographed herself nude amidst the grandeur of nature. Seemingly stranded on an empty, endless road, she appears vulnerable and lost, but across the larger series, her photographs veer from savage self-examination to carefully constructed performances that explore identity, subjectivity, and femininity. One of the key influences on Dater’s photography is the work of Imogen Cunningham, who was also a close friend.