Zoom In: Dona Schwartz

Spend a few minutes with photographer Dona Schwartz and you’ll start to see a bit of grandeur hiding beneath humble day-to-day routines. “I want to see what’s amazing that’s right under my nose,” she explains. “To me, that’s really compelling. But to photograph daily life, you have to first really see it. You have to be really quick and really observant.”

And so began In the Kitchen and Soccer Mom, two series that document, respectively, the comings and goings of family and friends in Schwartz’s own home, and parents at their kids’ soccer matches. Seen through Schwartz’s lens, these snatches of family life are surreal and evoke the changeable nature of parent-child relationships. Occasionally they’re funny; sometimes, they’re uncomfortably frank.

“I think about how I can incorporate my photography into the life I lead,” Schwartz explains. “I can’t entertain the idea of leaving—photographing across the country or around the world for long stretches of time. I have these children, and I love these children. I can’t just go off and leave them. But I don’t think it’s trivial to look at things closer to home. To me, part of the challenge is to say, ‘Look at just how amazing and complex these things you take for granted are.’”

For Schwartz, photography is about finding a good story and telling it as best you can. “Meaningful work doesn’t have to have exotic subject matter, ” she argues. “I can tell you this,” she says, leaning in. “It’s a ridiculously euphoric experience when you lock a truly decisive moment within the frame. It’s like recognizing your own thoughts crystallized in an image.”

 

This article originally appeared in issue 15.1 of access+ENGAGE.
Subscribe to this free arts e-magazine at mnartists.org/accessengage.


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