Shawn Theodore (b. 1970) was born in Germany to American parents from Philadelphia and currently lives and works in Philadelphia. He has received numerous accolades, including being named one of PDN’s 30 New & Emerging Photographers to Watch in 2019. Theodore has also received the Getty Images / ARRAY Where We Stand grant and a grant from the Knight Foundation for his project A Dream Deferred. He was a two-time nominee for the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship and a nominee for the Magnum Foundation Fund. Additionally, he serves as an Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of the Arts, is a trustee of the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, and has previously served as a trustee of the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center.
Theodore gained recognition for his vibrant, silhouette-focused street photography, which caught the attention of both media outlets and consumer brands due to its graphic, illustrative qualities. His first solo exhibition, The Avenues, showcased his debut photography project in 2015 at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia as part of Re-PLACE-ing Philadelphia, supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
In 2017, Theodore’s first museum solo exhibition, Church of Broken Pieces, was presented at the African American Museum in Philadelphia. This exhibition, which featured over 50 photographs, traveled the same year to Richard Beavers Gallery in Brooklyn. The artist received the Getty Images / ARRAY Where We Stand grant for this project in 2018.
Later in 2017, Theodore debuted his third photography project, Future Antebellum, at the Art Sanctuary in Philadelphia, presented in collaboration with the African American Museum in Philadelphia. The exhibition and the works from this project were later included in international group exhibitions and art fairs.
One of Theodore’s works, Mood, was featured in 2020 in the international group exhibition Black Art Matters – Contemporary Black Photography held in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2021, two works from Future Antebellum—Dubhe and Unmasked—were created as murals on the facade of The New Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, in collaboration with Mural Arts Philadelphia.
Theodore has continued to document the experiences of the Black community. In 2018, he was the lead artist for A Dream Deferred: PHL Redlining – Past, Present, Future, an exhibition exploring how race and policy have shaped the landscape of Philadelphia. This project was funded by a grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Also in 2018, Theodore participated in the 50-State Initiative, a nationwide project by For Freedoms that used art to inspire civic engagement during the midterm elections. His contribution culminated in a group exhibition, Yearbook, alongside photographers Danna Singer and Daniel Traub, at the TILT Institute, in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, supported by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
In 2016, Theodore expanded his artistic practice to include collage. His autobiographical series These Subtle Declarations reimagines family photographs, blending images of himself and his male relatives to create hybrid portraits that explore identity, memory, and trauma. This series was in 2018 first presented in the group exhibition Refraction: New Photography of Africa and its Diaspora at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York City.
Theodore’s collage work has been featured in The New York Times (2019), The New Republic (2020), and The Atlantic, including an article titled The Fight to Decolonize the Museum.
In 2019, Theodore published his first photographic monograph, Birmingham, through Kris Graves Projects. The book, created over a month’s time, explores the African American community’s relationship with its future in Birmingham, Alabama, using the city’s socioeconomic disparities as a framework for understanding its physical and cultural landscape.
