Diana Davies (photographer)

Born in 1938, Davies was raised in Maine, the Catskills region of New York State, New York City, and Boston. Her grandparents were union organizers and Debs socialists — Davies credits her family background with influencing her later activist work.{{Cite web|title=Diana Davies photographs · SOVA|url=https://sova.si.edu//record/CFCH.DAVIE#Biographical/Historical%20note|website=sova.si.edu|access-date=2020-05-13}}

Davies left high school at 16 and worked as a waitress and dishwasher while pursuing a musical career.{{Cite web|url=https://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/news/news-eventdiana.html|title=Sistervision: Seeing Women's Lives. Photos by Diana Davies- An exhibit in the Sophia Smith Collection|date=March 2000|website=Smith College Libraries|access-date=2017-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161001122949/https://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/news/news-eventdiana.html|archive-date=2016-10-01|url-status=dead}}

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. She taught herself how to develop and print her own photos, and began her photography work shooting behind-the-scenes images at theaters.

Davies began working with Agnes "Sis" Cunningham and Gordon Friesen, editors of Broadside magazine. Through her contact with them (and based on her family background), she developed an interest in human rights work.

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. She photographed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival during its early years. In addition to her work in the United States, she has photographed Central America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.{{Cite web|url=http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w6989d9s|title=Davies, Diana, 1938-|website=socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-03-05}}

From the 1960s through the 1980s, her work appeared in such publications as Life, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. Davies aligned herself with the Gay Liberation Front and contributed images to Come Out!, a magazine published by the GLF.{{Cite web|title=The Underrecognized Photographers Who Showed Queer Life in the 1960s|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-underrecognized-photographers-queer-life-1960s|last=Palumbo|first=Jacqui|date=2019-06-28|website=Artsy|language=en|access-date=2020-05-15}} She documented the first [Pride Parade] in New York City on 28 June 1970.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/06/18/first-nyc-pride-march-diana-davies-photographs |last=Nadan |first=Tal |title=Remembering the First New York City Pride March Through Diana Davies' Photographs |date=June 18, 2020 |website=New York Public Library |access-date=2020-06-24}}

In the 1990s, she shifted her focus to illustration, painting and graphic art and largely ceased working as a photographer.

Davies writes plays with social justice themes, having throughout her life participated in and supported all aspects of "people's theatre."

As of 2018, Davies was living in Northampton, Massachusetts. She continues to perform in musical groups — including as percussionist for the group Flame n Peach and the Liberated Waffles.{{Cite web|title=Basemental: The World According to Moggie|url=https://valleyadvocate.com/2018/02/12/basemental-world-according-moggie/|last=Meyer|first=Will|date=2018-02-12|website=Valley Advocate|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-15}}

Davies' 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 College Peace Collection.{{cite web|title=Diana Davies Photograph Collection|url=http://www.folklife.si.edu/archives_resources/collections/davies.aspx|work=Diana Davies Photograph Collection Finding Aid|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|accessdate=28 September 2013}} Additionally, The New York Public Library holds some of her materials.{{Cite web|title=Remembering the First New York City Pride March Through Diana Davies' Photographs|url=https://www.nypl.org/blog/2020/06/18/first-nyc-pride-march-diana-davies-photographs|access-date=2020-06-24|website=The New York Public Library}}

Books

• Photojourney: Photographs (1989), Belfast, Me.: Bag Lady Press. {{ISBN|0962243205}} {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GokhAAAAMAAJ|title=Photojourney: photographs|last=Davies|first=Diana|date=1989-01-01|publisher=Bag Lady Press|isbn=9780962243202 |language=en}}

Plays

• The Witch Papers (1980)
• The War Machine (1998)

Discography

• Twelve o'clock girl in a nine o'clock town (1996), Red Hot Records (cassette)

• Leonard Fink

{{reflist}}

• [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/596 Diana Davies papers] at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections
• [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/diana-davies-photographs#/ Diana Davies Photographs] in the New York Public Library Digital Collections
• [http://gvshp.org/blog/2015/06/29/diana-davies-collection-of-historic-lgbt-images/ Diana Davies Collection of Historic LGBT Images] at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
• [http://sova.si.edu/record/CFCH.DAVIE Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives]

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Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Category:American photojournalists

Category:21st-century American women

Category:American women photojournalists

Category:20th-century American women photographers

Category:20th-century American photographers