Keith Carter was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948, but moved to Beaumont, Texas at the age of five and has lived there ever since. His mother, Jane, supported the family as a professional photographer. As a teenager, Carter accompanied his mother on photography tours to small Texas towns, entertaining the children while she took their pictures. He developed his talents as a photographer on his own with advice from David Cargill, an artist and teacher at Lamar University in Beaumont. He received a BBA degree from Lamar in 1970. In 1975, he married Patricia Staton, and while earning a living in Beaumont for many years as a commercial photographer, he never ceased “making art” for himself. From time to time, when they got a bit of money saved up, Pat would insist that Keith take days off to devote himself to his own photographs. Through the years Pat has been his mainstay and constant ally. Today, Keith Carter is an internationally recognized photographer and educator who holds the endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas. Called “a poet of the ordinary” by the Los Angeles Times, Carter’s haunting, enigmatic photographs have been widely exhibited in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America. He has published over 15 books, three in the Wittliff Collection’s photography series with UT Press including Keith Carter: Twenty-Five Years (1997); Ezekiel’s Horse (2000); and A Certain Alchemy (2008). His most recent monograph is From Uncertain to Blue (UT Press, 2011). Keith and Pat Carter live and work in Beaumont.
http://keithcarterphotographs.com/
