This silver gelatin print was taken by Winter Prather (1926-2005) sometime in the mid 1950's in an unidentified location. The photograph depicts a young woman, Willa Allen. Out of focus, Allen's face appears in the lower left corner of the image. Behind her, the opposite side of her face is reflected in the grille of a Rolls Royce automobile. A hood ornament and the Rolls Royce insignia are also visible above the grille. It is unknown whether Prather took this photograph of behalf of a commercial client; he brought the same sensibility to his artistic and commercial work. Allen appears in many photographs in the Winter Prather collection. It is likely that she was one of Prather's personal friends.
Winter Phillips Prather (1926-2005) was a prominent commercial and fine art photographer who worked in Denver, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico during the mid 20th Century. Due to the physical and mental illnesses that Prather suffered later in his life, many images in the collection were not initially labeled with dates, subjects, or locations. Photographs that have been dated and identified were taken between 1940 and 1978 primarily in Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Images in the collection demonstrate Prather's mastery of diverse photographic genera’s. Non-representational abstracts, industrial images, western landscapes, portraits, still-lifes, and art reproductions can all be found among Prather's photogrpahs. In addition, the collection also contains Prather's experimental work with reverse negative printing, composite images, and solarization. This photograph is part of the Winter Prather collection (Ph.00332)