Dan Williams, a Brooklynite, studied painting and photography with James Ernst, Philip Pearlstein, Ad Reinhardt and Walter Rosemblum, at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York where he received his BA degree in 1965. While a graduate student in painting at Brooklyn College, he supported himself by teaching art in the New York City Public School System, but in 1967, decided to accept a fellowship to continue his studies in Photography at the Univ. of Oregon at Eugene. There he studied with Bernard Freemesser, Bret Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogene Cunningham and W.Eugene Smith. He earned his Master of Arts degree in Photography in 1969, and came to Ohio University that September. He earned the rank of Full Professor of Art, served 3 terms as the Photography Program Chair, and served as the Assistant to the Provost for Minority Graduate Student Affairs. He is presently on early retirement and has been awarded Emeritus status.

Williams, best known for his documentary work on Emancipation Day Celebrations around the country, is included in major museum collections nationwide, including the National Museum of American Art-Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Over the years he has received 4 Individual Artist Fellowships and a Professional Development grant from the Ohio Arts Council, 2 Ohio University Research Grants and numerous Jurors awards. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in one person and group shows, lectured and served as a visiting artist around the country, and completed a major commissioned work at the Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center at Wilberforce, Ohio in 1988. He is represented by the Visual Studies Workshop Gallery in Rochester, NY. In 1997 he received an 1804 grant to develop a digital imaging component to the photography program.  

Dan Williams is pleased to be a part of a nationally recognized program in photography in the School of Art, and proud of the students who have graduated and gone on to distinguish themselves as artists and teachers, including at least 6 Guggenheim Fellows in Photography.