Donavon Smallwood’s latest body of work is a remedial response to the “maze” of the pandemic

Finding solace in his local green space, the New York-based photographer has compiled a healing series on the subject.

Date
10 March 2021

The last year has given rise to a new love of the outdoors, whether that’s through birdwatching, running, reading on the grass or taking a daily stroll through the park. Nature, amongst it all, has played an important role in everyone’s lives, keeping us sane and giving us a much-needed change of scenery.

This was just the case for Donavon Smallwood, a photographer born and raised in New York. At the beginning of the pandemic, the change of circumstance took a toll on his mental health and, resultantly, he found refuge in his local green space, Central Park. As a place that’s provided solace for the photographer for his entire life, this, combined with hearing the story of Seneca Village last year – a predominantly African-American community that was demolished before it became the Central Park we know it as today – triggered some creative curiosity for Donovan.

“Thinking deeply about the meaning of home, escape, nature and the history of Seneca Village, I went out daily to create images that encapsulated tranquility and ‘languor’, how I saw and felt it,” he tells It’s Nice That. And that’s how his most recent body of work, Languor – which by definition references positive notes of tiredness and inactivity – first developed. Through a series of black-and-white portraiture and landscape shots of the park, it was the response to his present surroundings and the events unfolding. “I don’t really see it as a story, more of a maze.”

Donovan was born and raised in Harlem, which is where he still resides to this day. Photography wasn’t always a medium he knew he’d venture into, and the initial career option was to become an archaeologist. This was evoked by the fact that he used to collect National Geographic magazines back in the day, alongside “unearthing mega fossil dig kits” from the toy store, Toys R Us. “That was the only thing I cared about and focused on up until I took a photo class near the end of high school. There, my teacher – who really praised my awful images – told me that archeology and photography were in many ways the same, depending on the hermeneutics applied.” As such, and unsurprisingly, Donavon fell for the medium.

Thereon, the creative needed to make two major decisions: whether or not to head to university, and whether to pursue archaeology or photography. He ended up choosing the latter and studied Documentary Filmmaking and English Literature, “after being told by a working photographer I looked up to that I should save myself from crippling debt, and go to school for something else,” he says. Five years down the line, and ever since he’s had a plethora of different full-time jobs. This includes roles in photography, production, casting and assisting, meanwhile he’s also taken on freelance photography work, has been a teacher’s assistant and been in the darkroom printing. “Throughout all of this,” he continues, “I have been working on various projects, all of which are in different stages of completion.”

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Donavon Smallwood: Languor (Copyright © Donavon Smallwood, 2021)

For Donavon, a usual day revolves around the weather and season at hand. For example, as he’s currently in the midst of winter, and we’re all in a “weird stage” of the pandemic, he’s finding his days spent more blissfully at home. “If I’m not working, a typical day is spent a home watching movies or TV shows, reading books or playing games,” he says. This, of course, is something that we can all relate to greatly. When he is working, however, Donavon pulls references from a multitude of artists, photographers, filmmakers and writers. “I find inspiration by engaging with the tradition of art and educating myself in regards to the history of the mediums, finding what I love and hoping I can be lucky enough to build off that.”

Within his latest project Languor, the images are a familiar and friendly display of those that you might see in your local green area. His subjects, he says, are people that he’s either been lucky enough to photograph or people who he finds interesting in some way or another. Usually, he doesn’t spend too much time getting to know them, but sometimes they might stay connected in the long run through social media. “I learn as much as they are willing to tell me in the 10-15 minutes it takes to set up my camera and photograph them a few times,” he adds, stating how he never goes in with an aim to portray them in a certain way. “My goal is to focus on acknowledging their existence and the thing, emotion or expression I noticed about them that struck me.”

Throughout the series, Donavon’s subjects are either those he’d met and approached, or people he’d met through social media or a mutual friend. Either way, he hopes that his audience can’t tell which was planned or which was staged, and that there’s a certain type of mystery about that. You can tell in an instant that Languor was – and is – a remedial process for Donavon. And with plans to turn the series into a book later this year with Trespasser Books, it’s healing capabilities aren’t quite over yet.

GalleryDonavon Smallwood: Languor (Copyright © Donavon Smallwood, 2021)

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Donavon Smallwood: Languor (Copyright © Donavon Smallwood, 2021)

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About the Author

Ayla Angelos

Ayla is a London-based freelance writer, editor and consultant specialising in art, photography, design and culture. After joining It’s Nice That in 2017 as editorial assistant, she was interim online editor in 2022/2023 and continues to work with us on a freelance basis. She has written for i-D, Dazed, AnOther, WePresent, Port, Elephant and more, and she is also the managing editor of design magazine Anima. 

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