Keith Dannemiller was born in Akron, Ohio on May 27, 1949, and educated there in Catholic elementary and high schools. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee with a B.A., majoring in Organic Chemistry and minoring in Mathematics. While he was working as a Biochemistry research assistant, he also studied Photography at San Francisco State University from 1973 to 1975. During this time he published his first images in the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1976 he moved to Austin, Texas where he worked for The Texas Observer, Third Coast and Texas Monthly. In 1985, with the support of the Texas Council on the Humanities, he photographed throughout the state of Texas for the project "Working in Texas." While living in Austin, he began the first of many photographic trips to the north of México, in particular the area around Espinazo, Nuevo Leon. There he documented the festival of the Niño Fidencio, a folk saint renowned in México during the 1920's. The resulting work was published in Third Coast magazine and exhibited in Austin. In 1987 he decided to live and work in México. A relationship that began with the Mexican photo agency Imagenlatina in May, 1987, resulted in two trips to the Middle East (1988 and 1989) to cover the unfolding events of the Intifada.

While currently an independent photographer, during the past 18 years he was associated with two US photo agencies: Black Star and Saba Press Photos. As a photographer in Latin America, he has covered a wide variety of situations, ranging from Nicaraguan recontras to street children in México City to life on the US-México border. His work regularly appears in Time, Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes amongst other noted publications in the US, Europe and Asia. A more complete client list and examples of his work can be seen at www.keithdannemiller.com.

A re-occurring theme in his personal work is the effect on Mexico's rich traditions as the country modernizes. Visual projects that have captured his interest include: a fundamentalist sect that uses exorcism to deal with social problems; portraits from the streets of Mexico City's Centro Historico; Danzón events in public parks throughout the country; and currently, color portraits of Mexicans from across the country and the social spectrum (www.luztranslation.com). He lives with his wife and their son   in the Condesa district of Mexico City.