Diana Davies

Diana Davies (born 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 movements 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.

Early life 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.

Davies left high school at 16 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.

From the 1960s through the 1980s, her work appeared in such publications as Life, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. She documented the first [Pride Parade] in New York City on 28 June 1970.

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

Collections 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. Additionally, The New York Public Library holds some of her materials.

Works Books

Photojourney: Photographs (1989), Belfast, Me.: Bag Lady Press.

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)