Born in 1943 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, lives and work in New York and Maine.

William Wegman is an artist and photographer who is most well-known for creating a series of compositions featuring dogs. In 1965, Wegman graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in Painting. Two years later, he received an MFA in Painting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Wegman had originally intended to pursue painting as a career. It was while he was employed as a teacher at California State University in Long Beach that Wegman acquired the first of the Weimaraners he would later feature in his photographs. Named for the artist Man Ray (American, 1890–1976), dogs eventually became exceedingly popular as a feature in Wegman's works. Wegman eventually became noted for featuring his Weimaraners in a variety of poses and costumes. In the 1970s, he also began to experiment with creating video shorts of his dogs.

William Wegman is represented by Huxley-Parlour Gallery.