Name Diana Davies | Role Playwright | |
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Books Photojourney, Raj in Charge | ||
Diana Davies (b. 1938) is an American photographer, playwright, painter, graphic artist, illustrator, and musician who was one of the leading photojournalists documenting the feminist and gay liberation movement of the 1960s and '70s. Her photographs cover the early days of diverse women's and LGBT social movements, as well as the Civil Rights, Peace, and farmworkers' rights movements. Her work is housed in the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections located in the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the New York Public Library, Howard University, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Sophia Smith collection at Smith College, and the Swarthmore Peace collection.
Contents
Early life
Davies left high school without finishing and worked as a waitress and dishwasher while pursuing a musical career.
Career
In the 1960s, Davies became involved in photography during her work with theatre and music, and began her work using equipment purchased at a yard sale. Davies photographed numerous pivotal moments in music and social justice movements throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the Poor People's March on Washington, Newport Folk Festival, and the Philadelphia Folk Festival. In addition to her work in the United States, she photographed Central America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
From the 1960s through the 1980s, her work appeared in such publications as Life, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe.
In the 1990s, she shifted her focus to illustration, painting and graphic art and largely ceased working as a photographer.
Publications
Diana Davies, Photojourney: Photographs. Bag Lady Press, 1989. (ISBN 0962243205)