Photographers

Margo Davis (born 1944 in Connecticut) is an American photographer renowned for her fine‑art portraiture and documentary work across the United States, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. Raised on the East Coast and later based in Palo Alto, California, Davis developed an early interest in literature and the arts, studying at Bennington College, spending time at the Sorbonne, and completing her BA at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her MA in photography at San Jose State University. Her early career took shape during the cultural and feminist movements of the 1960s and 70s, shaping her humanistic, socially grounded approach to portraiture.

Davis is best known for her intimate black‑and‑white portraits that emphasize the “landscape of the face.” Her work often explores communities with whom she developed long‑term personal connections, including the people of Antigua—her first husband’s home country—where she created the seminal series later published in the book *Antigua Black* and revisited in *Antigua: Photographs 1967–1973*. She likewise photographed the Fula (Fulani) people in Nigeria, producing sensitive, culturally engaged portraits that combined ethnographic observation with artistic expression. She has also produced portraits of major literary figures such as Saul Bellow, Ursula K. Le Guin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tillie Olsen, Diane Johnson, and Kay Boyle.

As an educator, Davis has taught photography and photojournalism at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and other institutions. Her photographic books—among them *Under One Sky*, *Women Writers of the West Coast*, *The Stanford Album*, and her Antigua series—represent more than five decades of portrait-making. Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and internationally, and is noted for its emotional intelligence, humanistic sensitivity, and technical precision. Today, Davis continues to photograph, write, and exhibit, remaining a significant voice in California’s photographic legacy.