Keith Carter b.1948

Fireflies Contact Sheet

1992

In Keith Carter's work, there is always more than meets the eye. The contemporary American photographer's pictures have a Surrealist quality, and Carter has a way of transforming the ordinary into the otherworldly. He strives to bring out the significance of the moment with black and white, figurative and abstract photography that has a deep sense of time and place.

Carter was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1948. He grew up in Beaumont, Texas, where he also studied business management at Lamar University, graduating in 1970. After finding himself drawn to taking pictures, Carter started working as a commercial photographer.

Photography proved a successful and fruitful calling, and Carter earned recognition for his work over the years. In 1997, his photography was nationally televised on CBS Sunday Morning. Celebrities also started collecting Carter's photographs, including Julia Roberts, Steven Spielberg, Diane Keaton, Elton John, Vanessa Redgrave and Barack Obama.

Carter was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts in 2009. Unfortunately, that same year, he was diagnosed with melanoma in his left eye, leaving him with limited vision. His photographic work helped him get through the experience: he even decided to make photographs focused on sight itself. Carter began experimenting with materials like silver gelatin and archival pigment to mimic the cloudiness of his vision.

Carter is represented by PDNB Gallery in Dallas, Texas, as well as by other galleries across the United States. In speaking to Introspective, the owners of PDNB Gallery describe Carter as a "Texas legend" and explain that they were following his work before they even opened their gallery. Their first 1997 show with the artist was described as a "blockbuster."

Carter's work is held in the collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and many more prestigious institutions. He holds the Endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University and continues to exhibit and hold workshops across the United States.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of original Keith Carter photography.