Early in 1972, while as a twenty-four year old student studying photography at the
Center for Creative Studies in Detroit, I began working with a 35mm camera where
for approximately one year I photographed in and around the Detroit area. Some
of these pictures I printed for school assignments, but for the most part I compiled
a negative book worth of work where I then stored them away and quickly forgot
about them, never even bothering to make contact sheets. I shuttled the books
around for years, throwing them into a cabinet every time I moved, only to have
them sit again for another decade or two. It wasn’t until 2013, after over forty
years of them sitting dormant that I rediscovered them.
What I found were many never before printed images that contradicted the novice,
immature nature of an early budding photographers vision. What they did reveal
was a body of work, crafted out of an acute observational skill set that eloquently
traced my wanderings as a young man, a photographer who was absorbed within
the pace and daily life of his local surroundings. To reacquaint myself with this
work has been a most satisfying experience, knowing that I’m the creator of the
work and taking full credit, but in many ways because of the distance in time from
when I took these pictures, it can almost feel as if someone else had tripped the
shutter, and not me, but knowing it was me in my earlier career, has been a real
pleasure getting to know them again.
From October 01, 2026 to October 31, 2026
The Year I Arrived
Dave Jordano
All About Photo is pleased to present the online solo exhibition honoring the winner of the October 2026 Solo Exhibition competition.
expand_circle_rightArtist Statement
expand_circle_rightSolo Exhibition: The Year I Arrived
expand_circle_rightBiography
Dave Jordano was born in 1948 in Detroit, Michigan. He received his BFA in
photography from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit in 1974. In 1977 he
established a highly successful commercial photography studio in Chicago,
shooting major advertising campaigns for companies such as Crate & Barrel,
Starbucks, Sears, Nestle, Kraft Foods, General Mills, Nintendo, and Kellogg’s.
As mid-career fine art photographer, Jordano has received numerous accolades and awards. He first received an honorable mention in the Houston Center for Photography’s Long Term Fellowship Project in 2003, and then received the Curator’s Choice Award the following year. He is a five-time top 20 finalist in the Photolucida's “Critical Mass” national photography competition in Portland, OR as well as a two time finalist in the LenCulture International Photography Awards. In 2015 he was awarded the Peter Urban Legacy and Best of Show Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography's annual competition, became a finalist in the triennial Outwin-Boochever Portrait Competition from the Nation Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, and received the prestigious $50,000 AIMIA-AGO Photography Prize in Canada. Jordano has exhibited both internationally and nationally.
His work is included in several private, corporate and museum collections, most notably the permanent collection of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Art Institute, The Harris Bank Collection, and the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
His first book, “Articles of Faith” documented small African American Storefront churches in Chicago and was published in April 2009 by The Center for American Places. His second book, “Detroit: Unbroken Down”, published in 2015 by PowerHouse Books documented the cultural and societal characteristics of his hometown of Detroit and his third book “A Detroit Nocturne” was published in the spring of 2018, also by PowerHouse Books.
As mid-career fine art photographer, Jordano has received numerous accolades and awards. He first received an honorable mention in the Houston Center for Photography’s Long Term Fellowship Project in 2003, and then received the Curator’s Choice Award the following year. He is a five-time top 20 finalist in the Photolucida's “Critical Mass” national photography competition in Portland, OR as well as a two time finalist in the LenCulture International Photography Awards. In 2015 he was awarded the Peter Urban Legacy and Best of Show Award from the Griffin Museum of Photography's annual competition, became a finalist in the triennial Outwin-Boochever Portrait Competition from the Nation Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, and received the prestigious $50,000 AIMIA-AGO Photography Prize in Canada. Jordano has exhibited both internationally and nationally.
His work is included in several private, corporate and museum collections, most notably the permanent collection of The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Detroit Art Institute, The Harris Bank Collection, and the Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University.
His first book, “Articles of Faith” documented small African American Storefront churches in Chicago and was published in April 2009 by The Center for American Places. His second book, “Detroit: Unbroken Down”, published in 2015 by PowerHouse Books documented the cultural and societal characteristics of his hometown of Detroit and his third book “A Detroit Nocturne” was published in the spring of 2018, also by PowerHouse Books.
expand_circle_rightMore about Dave Jordano
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expand_circle_right@dave.jordano
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expand_circle_rightAll About Dave Jordano
expand_circle_right@dave.jordano
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expand_circle_rightAll About Dave Jordano
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