Winter Prather was a prominent commercial and fine art photographer working mostly in Denver, Colorado and Taos, New Mexico from the 1940’s to the 1970’s. Prather’s body of work is both masterful and diverse. He shot architectural photographs for commercial clients, informal portraits of lovers and friends, romantic landscapes, and abstract industrial scenes. His more non-traditional work often features tight compositions of industrial sites and automobiles. He also sought abstract forms in nature, the Denver cityscape, and even the work of other artists. He manipulated many of these images in the darkroom, creating double exposures and printing positives as negatives.

Prather was a success in both artistic and commercial photography. His photographs were featured in Camera, Modern Photography, Domus, American Heritage, Applied Photography, and Holiday. He also worked with several local and international architects such as Gio Ponti, who designed the Denver Art Museum. As of the 1960’s, Prather’s work could be found in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, the Museum of Modern Art, the Amon Carter Museum, the Columbus Art Museum, and the Denver Art Museum.

After Prather’s death in 2005, his work was included in a group show of early contemporary Colorado photography at the now-defunct Gallery Sink in Denver. Randy Roberts, owner of the Z Art Department, attended the show and later had the opportunity to purchase a group of the Prather’s photographs. This resulted in a 200 print retrospective exhibition of Prather’s work as well as an accompanying book.