Shawn Theodore
Germany, born 1970
Born in Germany, 1970
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA
Shawn Theodore is an award-winning photographer whose work opens conversations regarding the role of the photographer in the shaping of agency and identity. He engages the viewer in new forms of storytelling to affect the trajectory of collective Black consciousness.
Theodore’s work is an intersection of visual and written narratives, illusory perspectives, and culturally significant photographic imagery and objects to speak to the importance and equivalence through the lens of African American culture. His stated goal is to explore race, spirituality, patriarchy, matriarchy, and class structure within disappearing Black communities.
The multiformity of his practice positions him as a creator of an imagined archive of spiritual manifestations through explorations of often-overlooked cultural and historical narratives. His art frequently references African-American ethnography, cultural aphorisms, African spirituality, Haitian Vodou, and depictions of contemporary Blackness in American media.
In 2016, the artist began using the term ‘Afromythology ®’ to describe the trajectory of his conceptual photography practice, which is his not-so-subtle rebuttal to Afrofutristic aesthetic values, and to vividly reimagine the archive of Black American tradition that predates 'Blackness as an American Invention'. In an interview for ID Magazine, he explains the term as “someone who questions official histories and explores the radical possibility of alternative narratives through the creation of a missing, yet necessarily specific, African American mythology.”
Theodore was awarded the prestigious PDN’s 30 ‘New & Emerging Photographers to Watch’ (2019), the Getty Images / ARRAY ‘Where We Stand’ (2018) grant, and a grant from the Knight Foundation for ‘A Dream Deferred’ (2018). He is a two-time nominee of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship and the Magnum Foundation Fund nominee.
Theodore earned his BA in JPRA (Journalism, Public Relations and Advertising) from Temple University and attended the MFA for Photography program at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD Atlanta). Theodore is an Associate Adjunct Professor of the photography department of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He is a trustee of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation and The Center for Emerging Visual Artists (CFEVA).
Theodore has participated in exhibitions at various institutions, galleries, and fairs, including the African American Museum in Philadelphia (2017, 2018), the Mennello Museum of American Art (2018), The Barnes Foundation (2017, 2018, 2019), Steven Kasher Gallery (2018), AIPAD (2018, 2019), Hudson Valley Community College (2018), Catherine Edelman Gallery (2017), The Bakalar & Paine Galleries at MassArt (2017), Snap! Orlando (2018), Richard Beavers Gallery (2018), PRIZM Art Fair, Scope Art Fair, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Rush Arts Gallery (2017, 2018), and the University of the Arts (2019). His commercial projects include works for Apple, Showtime Networks, RocNation, PAPER Magazine, New York Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, The Atlantic, The New York Times, PDN, and many others.
Selected works are held in private, public, and library collections. Notable collectors/collections include former first lady Michelle Obama, CCH Pounder, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The African American Museum of Philadelphia, the Library of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of the Whitney Museum, the Library of the Guggenheim Museum, Library of the Getty Institute, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Arcadia University, Texas State University, ArtCenter College of Design, Syracuse University, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, and Drexel University.
