Anita Douthat is an American photographer most known for her ethereal images and experimental artistic process. Educated at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the University of New Mexico, Douthat creates large photograms of ordinary objects such as clothing and textiles. Produced without the use of a camera, her photogram process relies on the sun as the source of light to expose images of objects placed directly on photosensitive paper. The results, as seen in her Alterations and Under the Sun series, are ghost-like, life sized images of shirts, wedding dresses, and found materials.
Douthat’s photograms have been exhibited at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Indianapolis Art Center, Ross Art Museum at Ohio Wesleyan University, and the Weston Art Gallery in the Aronoff Center for the Arts. Her work is also included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Art in Houston, Columbus Museum of Art, and University of New Mexico Art Museum. Douthat has been the recipient of awards at grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell, and the Kentucky Foundation of Women. From 1985–1992, she was curator of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University and is currently associate director of the Carl Solway Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. Born in Cincinnati, she currently resides in Alexandria, Kentucky.
