Dona Ann McAdamsDona Ann McAdams studied photography at the San Francisco Art Institute and has an M.F.A. in
Visual Arts from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Empire State
College.

McAdams has exhibited at many places, nationaly and internationally, including the Museum
of Modern Art, NYC; The Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; The International Center for
Photography; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Library for Performing Arts
at Lincoln Center, Robert Miller Gallery and La Primavera Fotographica, in Barcelona, Spain,
Her photos are in the collections of, among other places, the Museum of Modern Art; The
Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Print Club, and the Pompidou Center.

She is the author of Black Box: A Photographic Memoir (Saint Lucy Books 2024), a book of
performance photography, Caught in the Act (Aperture 1996) and The Woodcutter's Christmas
(Council Oak Book, Fall 2001). Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The
New York Times, The Washington Post, The London Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time,
Newsweek, Stern, Doubletake, and Aperture.

Her awards and honors include the Meredith S. Moody Residency at Yaddo (2019), a Vermont
Arts Council Grant (2019), a 2018 Movement Research Honoree, an "Angel Honor" from the
Eric Carle Museum (2018); grants from the The Charles Lawrence Keith and Clara Miller
Foundation (2011, 2010), a Dorothea Dix Award from the city of Glens Falls, NY (2006), a
MacDowell Residency (1999), the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation (1997, 2000, 2004), an Obie
Award (1997), the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies
at Duke University (1996), and a Bessie Award (1993).

Since 1983, she has been committed to bringing cameras and photography into marginalized
and under-served communities. She has built community darkrooms and taught photography in
places as diverse as New York City homeless shelters, Appalachian farming communities,
thoroughbred race tracks, and day programs for people living with severe mental illness.
In 2009 she worked closely with Maurice Sendak in establishing the Sendak Fellowship, an
award-winning residency fellowship for people who tell stories with illustration, which she ran
as the director until 2017.

She has taught and lectured at, among other places, Rutgers University, New York University,
The American Center in Barcelona, Spain, and Hostos Community College in the South Bronx,
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