Dave Heath

David Martin Heath (June 27, 1931 – June 27, 2016) was an American documentary, humanist and street photographer.

Heath's books include A Dialogue with Solitude (1965). In 2015, a retrospective of his work was hosted by Philadelphia Museum of Art. His work is held in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Museum of Modern Art.

Life and work Heath was born in Philadelphia. He was inspired by Life magazine, most notably the article "Bad Boy's Story: An Unhappy Child Learns to Live at Peace with the World" He was a mostly self-taught photographer.

He was drafted in 1952 and served in Korea, taking many photographs there.

On his return, he attended Philadelphia Museum College, followed by Philadelphia College of Art during the 1954 to 1955. He moved to Chicago to study at the Chicago Institute of Design in the 1955 to 1956 school year.

In 1959, he attended The New School for Social Research in New York City, where he settled. In the late 1950s, he made street photographs of people in Washington Square Park in New York City, later collected in the book Washington Square (2016).

He emigrated to Toronto in 1970. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, November 2016 – March 2017. A retrospective. Dave Heath: Dialogues with Solitudes, Le Bal, Paris, September–December 2018;

Group exhibitions Museum of Modern Art, New York, November 1959 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: 15 prints (as of March 2019) Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX: 33 prints (as of March 2019) Museum of Modern Art, New York: 14 prints (as of March 2019) Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL: 3 prints (as of March 2019)