Dona Schwartz is an American photographer living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She earned her PhD at the Annenberg School for Communications and is professionally engaged with photography as an artist, scholar, and educator. Amongst her many academic publications are two photographic ethnographies, Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992) and Contesting the Super Bowl (Routledge, 1997). Her new photographic monograph, In the Kitchen, was published by Kehrer Verlag.

Her work has been internationally published and exhibited at venues including the National Portrait Gallery, London, Blue Sky Gallery, the Milwaukee Art Museum, The Stephen Bulger Gallery, the Pingyao International Photography Festival, and in numerous juried exhibitions in the United States. Her work is included in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, George Eastman House, the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, the Harry Ransom Center, the Portland Art Museum, the Kinsey Institute, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago's Midwest Photographers Project.

 
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SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
In the Kitchen, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, 2009
In the Kitchen, Blue Sky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2006
In the Kitchen, Stephen Bulger Gallery (Project Space), Toronto, ON, Canada, 2006
In the Kitchen, Minnesota Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN, 2004
Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm, Paul Whitney Larson Gallery, St. Paul, MN, 1993
Photographs from the Waucoma Project, Film In The Cities, St. Paul, MN, 1987
 
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
FOTOFEST2010, Houston, TX, Discoveries of the Meeting Place
(Selected by William A. Ewing, Director, Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland)
Domestic, Espacio Cultural Caja Madrid, Barcelona, Spain, 2010
Digital—Daguerreotype: Photographs of People, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA, 2009
The Art of Caring, New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA, 2009
Visions of Life, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, Darmstadt, Germany, 2009
I Want to Be Happy, Uno Art Space, Stuttgart, Germany, 2009
Teen City: The Adventure of Adolescence, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2008
The Photographic Portrait Prize 2007, Lowry Art Gallery, Manchester, UK, 2008
The Photographic Portrait Prize 2007, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK, 2007
Spectra '07 National Photography Triennial, Silvermine Guild Art Center, 2007
Kinsey Confidential, Kinsey Institute Gallery, Indiana University, 2007
Expressive Bodies: Contemporary Art Photography from the Kinsey Institute, Herron Gallery, Indianapolis, IN, 2007
Photographers:Network, Studio Thomas Kellner, Siegen, Germany, 2007
Suburban/Domestic, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS, 2007
Interactions, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO, 2007
Photocentric, Minnesota Center for Photography Juried Member’s Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN, 2007
Regarding Intimacy, Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College, New York, NY, 2007
Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, China, 2006
Domestic Diaries, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, 2006
Selbstsicht—der Schritt ins Bild, Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie, Darmstädt, Germany, 2006
Aus Amerika, Galerie Lichtblick, Köln, Germany, 2006
12th Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2006
Center Awards Juried Exhibition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2006
Photo Review Best of Show, University of the Arts Gallery 1401, Philadelphia, PA, 2006
New Works Gallery Online, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, 2006
Artists Interrogate: Race and Identity, Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI, 2005
Contemporary American Photography, 7th Internationale Fototage, Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany, 2005
Photocentric, Minnesota Center for Photography Juried Member’s Exhibition, Minneapolis, MN, 2005
15th Annual Center Awards Juried Competition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2005
Focused, Photographic Center Northwest 10th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition,
Seattle, WA, 2005
Members’ Exhibition, Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Boston, MA, 2005
11th Annual Juried Exhibition, Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA, 2005
14th Annual Center Awards Juried Competition, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA, 2004
Visual Proof! Photographic Center Northwest, 9th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, Seattle, WA, 2004
The Humor Show, Minnesota Center for Photography, Minneapolis, MN, 2003
 
COLLECTIONS
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland
George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film, Rochester, NY
Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Kinsey Institute, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
 
BOOKS
In the Kitchen. Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2009
Contesting the Super Bowl. New York and London: Routledge, 1997
Waucoma Twilight: Generations of the Farm. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY (partial list)
“Dona Schwartz In the Kitchen,” Peter Lindhorst, PHOTONEWS, June 2010
“Review: In the Kitchen by Dona Schwartz,” Caroline Grant, Learning to eat, May 27, 2010
“In the Kitchen,” Aline Smithson, Photo-Eye Magazine, May 12, 2010
“What the family kitchen is really like,” Sheryl Julian, Boston.com, February 26, 2010
“Home is where the Kitchen Is,” Amanda Benson, Smithsonian.com, April 1, 2010
“Photographing Family,” Aline Smithson, too much chocolate, October 17, 2009
"In the Kitchen: Wo Sich die Familie trifft,"Stern.de, September 25, 2009
"Wo gekocht wird und gegessen und gelebt," PHOTO International, June 2009
Sex and Sexuality in a Feminist World, Karen Ritzenhoff and Katherine A. Hermes eds. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009
The Rambler Magazine, 6(1), January 2009
"I Want to be Happy" OjodePez, 15, December 2008
"Artists Showcase" Camera Arts, July/August, 2007
"Zoom In: Photographer Dona Schwartz" access+ENGAGE, Issue #15.1, mnartists.org
reprinted in 10,000 Arts, Minnesota's Creative Quarterly, August 2007
"Photographers:Network Selection 2007: Patience" Profifoto, June 2007
"How I Shot This," Interview by Debbie Grossman. Popular Photography, January 2007
"In the Kitchen" Magenta Magazine, Vol 1(1) Spring 2006
"In the Kitchen: Words and Work by Dona Schwartz." Hotshoe, October/November 2005
"Fokus auf Dona Schwartz: Das Zentrum des Lebens." Frankfurter Rundschau Magazin,
October 22, 2005
"Discoveries of the Meeting Place: Photographers and photographic projects that caught our attention at the Fotofest 2004," Hans-Michael Koetzle, Leica World 2/2004
“Behind the Bowl,” Russell Scott Smith, Minnesota Monthly, January 1998
“Staying Close to Home: A Changing Vision of Documentary Photography,” Photo District News, Frank Jossi, June 1992
 
HONORS, FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS
Discoveries of the Meeting Place, Fotofest 2010, selected by William A. Ewing
Jurors' Selection, "Transformations", Fotofest 2008
Honorable Mention, "Photography Now '07", Center for Photography at Woodstock, 2007
Juror's Selection, "Interactions", Center for Fine Art Photography, 2007
Griffin Award, Griffin Museum of Photography, 2006
Semifinalist, The Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography, 2006
Sixth Prize, Photo Review Best of Show, 2006
Honorable Mention, HCP Photography Fellowship, Houston Center for Photography, 2006
Critical Mass Top 50 Photographer, 2006
Finalist, Santa Fe Prize for Photography, 2005
Finalist, MCAD/Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, 2005
Nominee, No Strings Foundation Grant, 2005
Critical Mass Top 50 Photographer, 2005
Honorable Mention, Visual Proof! Photographic Center Northwest, 9th Annual Photographic Competition Exhibition, 2004
 
ONLINE EXHIBTIONS
Photographer’s Showcase: In the Kitchen and On the Nest. Photo-Eye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, 2008
Teen City: L’aventure adolescente, The Forward Thinking Museum, Joy of Giving Something Foundation, 2008
 
CURRENT EMPLOYMENT
Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN