Donavon Smallwood and Bryan Schutmaat on "Languor" | Aperture Conversations

On August 5, 2021, Aperture hosted a special conversation between Aperture Portfolio Prize winners Donavon Smallwood (2021) and Bryan Schutmaat (2013) as they discussed Smallwood’s winning series Languor, meditative black-and-white photographs taken in New York’s Central Park, through which Smallwood envisions Black tranquility at the center of the urban landscape. Smallwood’s images, with their clarity and precision, invite viewers to consider Black people in natural settings connected to their own cultural history. As Smallwood himself affirms, “When you see Black people just being themselves, that’s what the art is.”
To see Donavon's work in print, order Aperture magazine, issue 243 "Delhi: Looking Out/Looking In” here: aperture.org/magazines/apertu...
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In this video:
0:00 Welcome from Emily Stewart
3:27 Bryan Schutmaat & Donavon Smallwood
4:29 “Langour” and the year 2020
6:52 Quiet pictures & interior moments
9:15 Relationship with Central Park
10:33 Photographing Central Park
12:17 The Work
12:45 Long Exposures
15:00 Casting for Portraits
17:52 Your process with subjects
20:40 Your influences
23:08 Dorothea Lange
24:42 Judith Joy Ross/Seneca Village
25:04 What motivates us vs. what we end up with
29:45 Portraiture & Developing Relationships
31:56 More Slides
33:15 Timeline for the project
33:50 Are projects ever complete?
35:12 Music for the series
36:24 Q&A
37:06 Why shoot long exposure?
38:22 Communicating with subjects
39:50 Posing vs. self-direction
40:43 How many photos did you take?
42:48 What defines a good portrait?
44:03 Would you consider pursuing film?
44:56 Role of ethnicity in the photographs
47:38 Literary references for the work
48:42 Busyness of landscapes
51:10 Including portraits & landscapes
52:28 Judith Joy Ross quote
56:56 What next?
58:50 Thoughts on your own photos?
1:01:09 Outtakes from the project
1:02:42 Closing Remarks

[@mymauri]

Congrats to my nephew Donavon!! Great work 💪🏾💪🏾

[@MattWeddis]

Watching this was such a worthwhile way to spend an hour.

[@alessandropaganelli5826]

Very inspiring 👏👏👏

[@tarapaul8212]

These portraits are amazing

[@sadiebridger]

So admire the pictorial overlap between humanity and nature.