Liza Dey

A native New Yorker, Liza grew up in the East Village and lived in the Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan for over a dozen years. After beginning to study photography formally in high school, she attended Fordham University-College at Lincoln Center, where she majored in Theatre and minored in Photography. Following college, she embarked on a career as a dancer and actress in New York City, while continuing to photograph the city she loved and the surrounding countryside. During this time, she began selling her photos at street fairs and on the sidewalks of New York. In 1987 one of her scenic shots was judged a finalist in the annual Photographer’s Forum ‘Best of College Photography’ ‘ competition, and in 1990 her work again placed as a finalist in their ‘Best of Photography’ competition.

A fan of figure-skating since she was a teenager, in 1989 Liza began attending skating competitions and exhibitions throughout the United States, trying her hand at action photography for the first time. The following year she began marketing her work freelance to skating fans and submitting regularly to the growing number of skating publications, and by 1993 most of her photographic time was spent on skating photography. When chronic knee problems ended her dance career later that year she began to pursue her photographic career full-time, specializing in figure-skating photography. Photo by Josh Stewart

Throughout the nineties, Liza’s career as a figure-skating photographer continued to grow and flourish as she shot an ever-growing number of competitions and exhibitions, both amateur and professional, throughout the Eastern United States. She developed a large international clientele of freelance customers, and became a regular contributor to such skating publications as American Skating World and Tracings, as well as becoming one of the only regular U.S. freelance contributors to the high-end, artistically-oriented, French skating publication, Patinage. Her work has been featured in skating show programs as well as in several books on figure-skating, including a close collaboration from inception thru completion on skating writer Tania Gressell’s e-book biography of two-time Olympic ice dance champion, Pasha Grischuk. In 1996 she developed, designed and marketed her own very successful line of figure-skating photo note cards, called ‘Variations’. Based on the concept of ‘variations on a theme’, it featured four different variations each on several common skating moves, as performed by different skaters. Reviewed by noted skating writer Marsha Lopez in the August 1997 issue of American Skating World, she called them “among the most beautiful skating cards ever done”. In 2000 nine of her skating photographs were featured in the show "Images from the Performing Arts" at the Times Square Lobby Gallery in New York City, and the following year six more of her skating images were featured in their invitation-only show "Reunion: In the Spirit of Community" featuring the work of some of their favorite artists from the past decade.

Having grown-up attending Broadway shows, Liza’s skating photography has always been heavily influenced by the work of many of the top theatre and dance photographers, most notably Martha Swope. Ms. Swope’s photographs of Broadway “gypsies”, especially her work with the dances of Bob Fosse, continue to inspire Liza’s portrayal of the human body in motion. Because of this theatrical bent and her own background as a dancer (as well as her work as a theatrical lighting designer and technician), the style of Liza’s work has always tended toward a more artistic and impressionistic direction, emphasizing each skater’s unique body line and a sense of movement and drama. Whether photographing skaters or scenics, she is always particularly drawn to the effects of light on her subjects, especially the interplay of highlight, shadow and silhouette.

While kept busy during much of the year with a hectic skating schedule, Liza still finds time to shoot the scenics, still lifes and cityscapes that originally drew her to photography as she travels throughout the country to skating events, and today, finds herself increasingly returning to this subject matter as she broadens her professional scope. She has developed an extensive collection of scenic and travel photography from all over the Eastern U.S., including numerous photos of Washington, DC and Lake Placid, NY (two popular skating destinations), Fire Island, NY (Liza's favorite summer escape location) and, of course, her own hometown, New York City.

Atop Turkey Hill Lake Mountain

Harriman State Park, NY

HOME* RESUME* GALLERIES* GIFT ITEMS * WHAT'S* * LINKS* * INFORMATION/

INFORMATION/ NEW? TO CONTACT LIZA

 
 
 All photos on this site © Liza Dey and are subject to U.S. copyright laws. They are not to be used in any 
manner without the express written permission of Liza Dey Photography. 
All rights reserved.