Keith Carter

Keith Carter was born on June, 3rd 1948 in Madison, Wisconsin. He and his family moved to Beaumont, Texas around the age of five, a small delta town near the Louisiana border. His mother started to work as a local portrait photographer. This would be a huge motivating factor in his development. By 1970 he began to go to school at Lamar University, where he would receive a degree in Business Administration, and soon after would begin work as a commercial photographer. He would soon take a trip to New York City and would visit the Museum of Modern Art which would eventually spark an interest for art in his mind. Apparently, the staff at the museum of modern art allowed Keith to view many old photographs in their collection, where he would try and absorb as much artistic information as humanly possibly. In the 1980s, Cater would take over his mother's photography business where he would travel to many other cities photographing families and children outside. This undoubtedly is where he began developing his own personal aesthetic for environmental portraiture and narrative art. He now still lives and works in Beaumont, Texas, where he is a distinguished professor at Lamar University, where he teaches photography. He also holds the schools highest teaching award and is a distinguished lecturer. He has published nine books and his photographs are on display all over the United States.

His work is very dream like and narrative. He uses selective focus to achieve this sort of dream like and fragile aesthetic that goes along with his work. He shoots primarily in the south where there's still a certain amount of mystique about it. I feel that i can take influences from him in the ways that I love the narrative quality and soft focus of his work. I feel that I can be able to learn from his composition and from the subjects that he photographs, that children and family of certain areas tell stories better than a staged photograph. That even when shrouded in a low depth of field, the narrative becomes even stronger and more embedded into the photograph. He has also influenced my work greatly because when I was just beginning in this field, I visited Tennessee where he was having an exhibition at Middle Tennessee State University and I got to look at his awesome prints and range of work, that it inspired me to work a little like him.


Gallery: http://www.edelmangallery.com/carter-bio.htm
Interview: http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-8492.html
Website: www.keithcarterphotographs.com (Although, site was down when trying to look at it)