Darcy
Padilla

Darcy Padilla

biography

Darcy Padilla is a documentary photographer based in Madison, Wisconsin (USA) and a member photographer of Agence VU’ in Paris.

She is an associate professor of art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work focuses on long-term projects about struggle and the trans-generational effects. Padilla’s honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, Open Society Institute Individual Fellowship, Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, Getty Images Grant, International Photo-reporter Grant, Canon Female Photojournalist Award, World Report Master Award, three World Press Photo Awards (first recipient for Long-Term Projects), and a W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography.

Her photographs exhibited and published internationally including Granta, Stern, The New Yorker, Le Monde, The New York Times. She has had solo exhibitions at Cortona On The Move (Italy), Festival of Ethical Photography (Italy), Festival Nicéphore (France), Visa pour l’image (France), and DOCfield Festival (Spain) at the contemporary art museum Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona.

Her work held in the collections of the Chazen Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Soros Foundation, and Banco Sabadell Art Collection. She has given artist talks at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, DOK-Festival (Norway), and Lumix Festival (Germany). Participating in panels at London Photo (United Kingdom) and Milano Photo Week (Italy). Lecturing at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and invited to teach workshops at Rencontres d’Arles (France). She was a judge on Sky Arts’ Master of Photography, a television program simulcast to Austria, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. The novelist Emmanuel Carrère profiled her work for the premiere issue of 6Mois and included it in the collection of essays Il est avantageux d’avoir où aller.

Padilla’s monograph Family Love published by Éditions de La Martinière in France, follows a family for 21-years — an intimate story of poverty, AIDS and social issues.

Series

California Dreamin' 2023

Series | A long-term project on homelessness in California documents people on the wrong side of the profound social and economic divide.

Cycles américains, 2021

Series | Darcy Padilla has documented the world's largest launderette in a working-class suburb of Chicago.

Wildfire in California, 2017-2018

U.S. Elections, 2016

Williston, North Dakota, 2013-2015

Skid Row, Los Angeles, 2015

Family Love, 1993-2014

Julie's story, an intimate report about poverty, Aids, and social issues in the United-States.

Haiti, 2010

California Dreamin' 2023

Series | A long-term project on homelessness in California documents people on the wrong side of the profound social and economic divide.

Cycles américains, 2021

Series | Darcy Padilla has documented the world's largest launderette in a working-class suburb of Chicago.

Wildfire in California, 2017-2018

U.S. Elections, 2016

Williston, North Dakota, 2013-2015

Skid Row, Los Angeles, 2015

Family Love, 1993-2014

Julie's story, an intimate report about poverty, Aids, and social issues in the United-States.

Haiti, 2010

California Dreamin' 2023

Series | A long-term project on homelessness in California documents people on the wrong side of the profound social and economic divide.

Cycles américains, 2021

Series | Darcy Padilla has documented the world's largest launderette in a working-class suburb of Chicago.

Wildfire in California, 2017-2018

U.S. Elections, 2016

Williston, North Dakota, 2013-2015

Skid Row, Los Angeles, 2015

Family Love, 1993-2014

Julie's story, an intimate report about poverty, Aids, and social issues in the United-States.

Haiti, 2010

video

Familly Love, 2016
—
Follows a family for 21 years—an intimate story of poverty, Aids, and social issues.

Interviews

Interview of Darcy Padilla

World Press Photo Foundation
—
2015 prizewinner Darcy Padilla talks about her series ‘Family Love 1993-2014’

3 minutes

Exhibitions

The Dreamers
—
Galleria della gran guardia – Piazza dei Signori – Padova (Italie)
—
From may 10th to june 9th, 2024

More information

California Dreamin’
—
Festival Visa pour l’image, Perpignan (FRANCE)
—
From September 2 to 17, 2023

More information

The Julie Project
—
L’Oeil Urbain Festival, Corbeil-Essonnes
—
From April 1 to May 22, 2022

More information

Cycles Américains
—
Festival Visa pour l’image, Perpignan (FRANCE)
—
From August 28 to September 26, 2021

More information

Dreamers
—
Festival Visa pour l’image, Perpignan (FRANCE)
—
From September 2 to September 7, 2017

More information

books

Family Love

Éditions de La Martinière - 2014

Family Love

Éditions de La Martinière - 2014

Family Love

Éditions de La Martinière - 2014

awards

RPS Award Royal Photographic Society)

For Editorial / Documentary Photography

2024

Françoise Demulder Grant

For her series “Amercian cycles”

2021

Canon Award for Women Photojournalists (France)

For his series on “Lakota Indians of the Pine Ridge Reserve”

2016

World Press Photo 1st Prize (Netherlands)

In the Category “Long-term projects, Stories” for h “Family Love 1993-2014”

2015

World Press Photo, Honorable Mentions (Netherlands)

In the “Everyday Life” category for the photograph “Jason & Elyssa”

2012

World Press Photo, Second Prize (Netherlands)

In the category “Contemporary Issues, Stories” for “The Julie Project”

2011

W. Eugene Smith Fund Grant (USA)

To continue her series “The Julie Project”

2010

Other awards

2010
Getty Images Grant for Editorial Photography
PDN Photography Annual

2009
Communication Arts, Photography Annual

2006
San Francisco Cultural Equity Award

1998
Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute Individual Fellow

1995
John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Fellow

1991
Alexia Foundation for World Peace