Nancy Kallman Rudolph was born December 26, 1923 in Brooklyn, NY. Her photographic career began in the late 1940s. While working for the Marshall Plan in Rome she documented post-WWII Italy and Germany. After returning to the U.S., Rudolph covered a wide range of subjects from coal miners in Appalachia to butchers on Manhattan's West Side to members of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. She traveled extensively in India where she sought to deepen her Buddhist practice while also photographing the country and its people. Her work brought her to the Middle East, the Caribbean, Latin America and throughout Southeast Asia. She photographed extensively on Martha's Vineyard where she spent many summers and in Taos, NM, where she lived for a number of years. Rudolph’s central Appalachian collection was donated to Appalshop Archive by her family in 2019