Dona Ann McAdams, Black Box: A Photo Memoir

Exhibition Dates: Nov 1 – Dec 29, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, November 1st, 5-8pm

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BOOK LAUNCH & ARTIST TALK:  Saturday, December 14, 2024, 5 – 6:30pm

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This exhibit covers nearly five decades depicting pivotal moments in the US, such as the Queer Liberation movement, the Culture Wars, and the Performance Arts scene of the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Dona Ann McAdams has been making photographs for over fifty years, her work exhibited at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, The International Center for Photography, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among other places.

Her books include Black Box: A Photographic Memoir (Saint Lucy Books, 2024) and Caught in the Act (Aperture, 1996). She is the recipient of a Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, an Obie and Bessie Award for her performance photography, and grants from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Arts Council.

Since 1983, she has been committed to bringing cameras and photography into small, underserved communities, setting up community darkrooms and teaching people how to shoot, process, and develop their own film and document their own lives. She has worked in places as diverse as adult homes for people living with mental illness, homeless shelters, small mountain communities in Appalachia, dairy farms in New England, and on the backstretch of thoroughbred racetracks.

Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The London Times, Art Forum, Doubletake, and Aperture. She has taught and lectured at, among other places, Rutgers University, New York University, The International Center for Photography, The American Center in Barcelona, Spain, and Hostos Community College, New York City.

She lives on a goat farm in Vermont.

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This exhibition made possible with support from Pratt Manhatten Gallery, NYC.