Revered for her intuitive approach, Judith Joy Ross (b. Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1946) is an American portrait photographer whose work primarily focuses on ordinary American people – particularly people in eastern Pennsylvania where she was born and raised.
Judith Joy Ross
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Judith graduated from the Moore College of Art in 1968. Later, she earned a postgraduate degree in Photography at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago (1970), where she studied with legendary photographer Aaron Siskind.
Described by writer Rebecca Bengal as ‘lightning encounters’, Judith’s photographs often depict fleeting moments of profound connection with her subjects. Her idiosyncratic printing process – placing a negative directly onto photographic paper, and then exposing it to sunlight – enhances the individualism of the people she photographs.
As Vince Aletti describes, Judith’s ‘attention is unwavering, and when her subjects return it there’s a flash of recognition between them. Her work isn’t merely a record of everyday life. It’s about the longing to connect and the pleasure of being truly seen.’
Judith has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1985), the Charles Pratt Memorial Award (1992), and the Andrea Frank Foundation Award (1998), among other accolades.
