Dona Ann McAdams, Black Box | Book of the Week

Book of the Week | Episode 35: Dona Ann McAdams, Black Box A black box is a darkroom, a theatre, a camera obscura, and the device that records accidents after they happen. For fifty years photographer Dona Ann McAdams has walked around with her own black box—an analog Leica M2—making unforgettable images of the happy, tragic, historic accidents of her times. Black Box marries McAdams’ iconic images with her own short lyric texts. Together they form a tender poetic portrait of a young female working-class artist, as well as an unapologetic history of the Queer Liberation Movement, the Culture Wars, and the Performance Art scene of the 1980s and 1990s. From her encounters with artist intellectuals such as Angela Davis, David Wojnarowicz, Maurice Sendak, and Meredith Monk, to her humorous self portraits, Black Box is a book about photography itself as the keeper and framer of memory. ——- 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 Award and a 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. In 2025, she received the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, the highest honor presented to an artist by the state of Vermont.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, for over 20 years, on the backstretch of the Saratoga Race Course.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. ------ ✨ Don’t forget to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss future episodes of Book of the Week! About the Vermont Center for Photography: The Vermont Center for Photography (VCP) is a nonprofit organization based in Brattleboro, Vermont, dedicated to promoting the photographic arts through exhibitions, education, and community engagement. We offer: Rotating exhibitions featuring regional, national, and international artists A publicly accessible library of 1,600+ photography books A black-and-white darkroom and digital lab open to the public Educational programs, workshops, and private tutorials for all skill levels PhotoThrift, our one-of-a-kind thrift store for vintage camera gear. Find out more at www.photothrift.org Focus Forward, a program offering free photo classes for individuals in addiction recovery Our mission is to foster dialogue, encourage inquiry, and create a welcoming community where people can explore and celebrate the power of photography. 📸 Learn more, become a member, or support our work: www.vcphoto.org Follow us on Instagram @vcpbrattleboro and @photothriftvcp