Margo Davis began photographing in her early twenties. Her first photographs were of family, friends, and people she encountered in her native New England. One of her first photographs done in 1967 is a portrait of a young girl in a Boston neighborhood. It is an early example of the photographer’s natural talent for working with people and capturing both personality and the essence of a moment with her camera.

Davis’ interest in portraiture followed her through her many life’s journeys and explorations. As an artist she experienced the feminist and cultural movement of the sixties and seventies. She became interested in the history of the African diaspora and traveled to Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil with her camera as a tool of both discovery and connection with the people she met. Among her many travels she photographed the island people of Antigua and the Fulani people of Nigeria. Closer to home, Davis photographed many of the artists, musicians, and writers of the West Coast. This work resulted in the publication of several books: ANTIGUA BLACK: Portrait of an Island People (Scrimshaw Press, 1973, WOMEN WRITERS OF THE WEST COAST (Capra Press, 1984) and UNDER ONE SKY (Stanford University Press, 2004).

Margo Davis' portraits contain an intimacy and artistic craftsmanship that provide the viewer with a powerful connection to her subjects. Her portraits are remarkable in their use of light, composition, and environment. Davis combines a strong expressive ability with a genuine sensitivity to the nature of the people she photographs. As a whole, the portraits reveal elements of her feminism, her politics, and the values of her social environment. But what these photographs express above all else is a strong sense of the artist’s compassionate nature and humanistic concerns.

Davis’ work has grown and expanded along with her artistic vision. She is an avid traveler and continues to photographically investigate the cultures she visits. She has also traveled metaphorically inward to explore the possibilities of the portrait as an expression of the inner world. Some of the most recent portraits in the show are montage work inspired by the writings of Joseph Campbell and Jungian ideas of the unconscious. And although she experiments with many forms of photography, Davis always finds herself drawn to “the landscape of the face” and all the feeling and life that her skilled eye can evoke from the people she photographs.

Margo Davis received her BA from University of California, Berkeley and her MA from San Jose State University. She has been a lecturer and instructor at colleges and universities throughout the Bay Area as well as at the Ansel Adams Yosemite portrait workshops and the Friends of Photography. Her photographs are in the collections of the Stanford University Museum, Brooklyn Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale, France.