Catherine DeLattre grew up in Monongahela, Pennsylvania, a small town near the heavily industrial area of Pittsburgh. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she studied archaeology at Kent State, where a course in basic photography was a requirement for recording archaeological digs. Her subsequent interest in photography led her to pursue a masters in art photography at Purdue University. While the program emphasized black-and-white photography, DeLattre became more interested in color under the influence of her teacher Vern Cheek, drawing inspiration from contemporaries like William Eggleston, Joe Maloney, Joel Meyerowitz, Jan Groover, Eve Sonneman, and Joel Sternfeld. In 1979, after a series of teaching gigs that took her from Maine to upstate New York, DeLattre settled in New York City, where she began teaching photography and darkroom at the International Center of Photography.

DeLattre lives and works in New York City and Pennsylvania.