Russel Albert Daniels’ work stands in the cross current of art, reportage, and re-Indigenization. His craft places storytelling at the forefront of a rich photographic practice which aims to bring visibility and make connections in Native American and underserved communities. His projects explore the ways in which identity, place, and history illuminate the aftermath of colonization and manifest destiny. Russel’s stories about Bears Ears, Standing Rock, Two Spirit, the climate crisis and the veiled legacy of colonial-era Indigenous enslavement in the American Southwest have helped to inform, educate, and prompt conversation about these complex hidden narratives.
Russel lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. He works throughout Utah, the Mountain West, Southwest, and the Great Basin.
Russel has a deep connection to this work due to his ancestral Native American and Mormon-European settler heritage. On his paternal side, his Diné ancestor Rose was taken captive as a child in the mid-1800s, in a slave raid by White River Ute. Rose was trafficked north into what became Utah Territory and legally sold to polygamist Mormon settler Aaron Daniels. After marrying Aaron and having four children, Rose enrolled with the Uintah & Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah in 1889. Russel and his siblings are Ho-Chunk on their maternal side and are the first of five generations to be born off of the Ute reservation.
La Cautiva is Russel’s long-term, ongoing photo project that illuminates centuries of Spanish colonial Indigenous enslavement and captivity in the American Southwest. Through portraiture, landscape photography, and documentation of cultural performance, La Cautiva brings forward this haunting, buried narrative by giving a voice to and observing the history and identity of the living descendants and communities of enslaved Native Americans. Chapter one of La Cautiva – The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú – is finished and was presented by the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and exhibited in NYC from 2022-2023, see this chapter online here: https://americanindian.si.edu/developingstories/daniels.html
On January 17, 2024 Russel will be giving an Artist Talk at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. He will be speaking about how his ancestral connections to Utah and the Southwest have help create the visual storyteller and artist he is today — then in conversation with Emily Lawhead, UMFA associate curator.
On March 30, 2024 The Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis will be exhibiting the complete first chapter of La Cautiva titled The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú, made in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. Russel will be part of an Indigenous photographer panel at the opening event along with photographers Tailyr Irvine & Donovan Quitero.
On May 18, 2024 the Tacoma Art Museum will host select works from La Cautiva in an exhibition entitled The Abiquenos and The Artist. 12 images from the project will work in conversation with original Georgia O’Keeffe paintings to demonstrate the art historical legacy of northern New Mexico. The show, curated by Patricia Marroquin Norby (Purépecha), the first Indigenous curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
In 2023, Russel’s photography is included in the following group exhibitions: In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now at Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Art of Belonging at UVU Museum of Art, Utah, Shaping Landscape: 100 Years of Photography in Utah at Utah Museum of Fine Arts & Mother Wound public exhibition at Celebration of the Hand, Craft Lake City, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Russel’s recent self-published photo zine Mother Wound is available here.
Contact Russel: russel (at) russeldaniels (dot) com
Email Russel about prints and zines.
Russel is a member of Indigenous Photograph and Diversify Photo
CV
Russel Albert Daniels
Born: 1974, Salt Lake City, Utah
EDUCATION
2009 BA, The School of Journalism, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
SOLO and MULTI PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 (September) Untitled Plateau – Material Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
2024 (May) The Abiqueños and The Artist – curated by Patricia Norby,
Tacoma Art Museum, WA
2024 (March) Developing Stories: The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú –
Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
2023 Mother Wound –
Essential Photo Supply, Salt Lake City, UT
2023 Mother Wound – Craft Lake City, Celebration of the Hand, Public Art exhibition,
Salt Lake City, UT
2022 Developing Stories: The Genízaro Pueblo of Abiquiú –
curated by Cecile Ganteaume
Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, NYC
2016 Blossom as a Rose – God Hates Robots, Salt Lake City, UT
2009 Love Your Body – University Center, University of Montana, Missoula, MT
2004 Bosnia – Anderson Foothill Library, Salt Lake City, UT
1996 Darkroom – Bibliotech, Salt Lake City, UT
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now – Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
2023 Shaping Landscape: 100 Years of Photography in Utah – Utah Museum of Fine Arts
2023 The Art of Belonging – UVU Museum of Art, Orem, UT
2020 Fotobok Festival – Oslo, Norway
2019 A World Transformed: the Transcontinental Railroad and Utah – Rio Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
2018 Cubanidad, traveling exhibition – Utah Arts & Museums, UT
2011 Free the Hikers – San Francisco, CA
2010 Kiss – Kayo Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
2008 Juried Exhibition – Gallery Saintonge, Missoula, MT
2007 Inner Primate – Red Light Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
2005 Apparatus, Print Exchange – Monk’s Pop-Up Gallery, Salt Lake, UT
2004 Citizen, Print Exchange – Walk of Shame Gallery, Salt Lake, UT
2003 Statewide Photographic Exhibition – Eccles Community Art Center, Ogden, UT
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Mother Wound, self-published
open edition artist book/zine, photography by Russel Albert Daniels
2023 In Our Hands: Native Photography, 1890 to Now, exhibition catalog – Minneapolis Institute of Art
2018 Bears Ears, self-published
limited edition artist book/zine, photography by Russel Albert Daniels
poem by Denae Shanidiin, essay by Terry Tempest Williams
2017 Wasatch XXX, self-published
open edition artist book/zine
photography and essay by Russel Albert Daniels
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Utah Museum of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
The Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Salt Lake County Visual Art Collection, UT
The State of Utah Alice Merrill Horne Art Collection, Salt Lake City, UT
Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX
J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
COMMISSIONS/PUBLISHED WORK
High Country News, ProPublica, Mother Jones, Emergence Magazine, National Geographic,
The New York Times, Sierra Magazine, The New Yorker, Smithsonian American Indian Magazine,
Bloomberg Businessweek, Catchlight, Gizmodo, Associated Press, Native Voices, SLUG Magazine,
Elsevier, Latino USA, The Bay Citizen, NPR, KUER
HONORS, AWARDS, and GRANTS
2023 The Yunghi Grant, Awardee
2022 The Aftermath Project, Finalist
2021 Utah Arts & Museums Visual Arts, Artist Fellowship
2021 National Geographic Society, COVID-19 Emergency Fund
2011 44 Second Ode to Newspaper, Tiny Video First Place, Albany Film Festival, CA
2010 Blackfeet Juveniles System, Society of Professional Journalist, multimedia, 4th place
2008 Chips Quinn Scholar, Freedom Forum, Workshop
2008 The Great Falls Tribune, Scholarship
2008 Joe Durso Project Grant, University of Montana, The School of Journalism
2008 Native American Journalists Association, Scholarship
2006 Associated Press, Diverse Voices/Diverse Vision, Cincinnati, OH
2005 American Indian Journalism Institute, Freedom Forum, SD, Workshop & Scholarship
2005 Nikon Photographer’s Forum Magazine Contest, Finalist
2004 Eccles Community Art Center, UT, print competition, 2nd place
WORK EXPERIENCE
2012 Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, mentor, Black Hills, SD
2011 Crazy Horse Journalism Workshop, mentor, Black Hills, SD
2009 Associated Press, photojournalism contract, San Francisco, CA
2008 Associated Press, photojournalism internship, Chicago, CA
2006 Saint Cloud Times, photojournalism internship, St. Cloud, MN
2005 Argus Leader, photojournalism internship, Sioux Falls, SD
2005 Spy Hop, photo instructor, Salt Lake City, UT
2003 Youth City, photo instructor, Salt Lake City, UT
1999 Black and White on White, darkroom printer, New York City, NY
1996 Wyeth, furniture refinisher, New York City, NY
1992 Daniels Painting INC., journeyman painter, Salt Lake City, UT
TALKS, LECTURES, & PODCASTS
2024 Artist Talk at Utah Museum of Fine Arts, UT
2023 Presentation to Granite Library Photo Club, Millcreek, UT
2023 Visual Sovereignty: Native American Artists and the Power of the Lens, Crit Salon, Modern West Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
2023 Art of Belonging artist panel, Utah Valley University Museum, Orem, UT
2023 Native America Calling Indigenous Photographer panel podcast, here.
2023 Fresh Focus on Native American Photography panel, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, NYC
2020 Zion Canyon Mesa interview podcast, here.
2020 Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian video conversation, here.
ARTICLES & INTERVIEWS
2023 15 Bytes review of Mother Wound Public Art exhibition, here.
2023 DP Review aerial photography interview with Russel by Jeanette Moses, here.
2023 Interview with Cultural Survival here.
2023 Southwest Contemporary artist profile of Russel by Scotti Hill, here.
2023 The Salt Lake Tribune Thanksgiving here.
2018 Salt Lake Underground Magazine, artist profile, here.