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Pulled From Print Art Young Photographers 2024
Donavon Smallwood Turned His Interest in Archaeology Into a Passion for Photography

Pulled From Print Art Young Photographers 2024
Donavon Smallwood Turned His Interest in Archaeology Into a Passion for Photography

The New York photographer is compiling the everyday into an archive of hidden paradises.

The New York photographer is compiling the everyday into an archive of hidden paradises.

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  • Donavon Smallwood

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  • Donavon Smallwood

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Donavon-Smallwood-photographer

AGE: 30
BASED IN: New York
NOMINATED BY: Dawoud Bey

My creative philosophy is one of recording paradise. I grew up wanting to be a poet and archaeologist. Upon truly discovering photography, I realized that both of those practices can be found in image-making.

Photography allows for an (occasionally short-term) return to normative community. Image-making has allowed me to feel at home in the world. I’m less interested in what my work says about who I am and more about my milieu. I’m interested in piecing together and archiving what I believe to be worth remembering, keeping, or cherishing.

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