John-David Richardson

John-David Richardson is an artist and photographer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska, and he holds a BFA in Photography from Northern Kentucky University. He received the Grand Prize in the 2018 PDN Student Photo Contest, Second Place in the 2018 Lenscratch Student Prize, and a 2018 SPE Student Award for Innovations in Imaging. His work has been shown both nationally and internationally and published in Exposure, 5 Journal, and PDNedu. He is the recipient of the Hixson-Lied Scholarly and Creative Activity Grant, the Edgren Tuition Fellowship, the Hixson-Lied Fellowship, and the Kimmel Fellowship. His work uses photography to address the emotional, financial, and psychological weight of poverty.

Kitchen Table

Wound

Man of Steel

Someday I’ll Find the Sun

I am a product of poverty. I was raised by my mother and her countless number of male
partners, amidst a backdrop of drug and alcohol abuse, drug manufacturing, domestic
violence, and neglect. These men would come and go, each one exhibiting more violent and
destructive behavior than the one before. Witnessing this unrelenting cycle at an early age
dramatically shaped my worldview, and I came to understand family as a collision of love
and hate.

Someday I’ll Find the Sun functions as a poetic reflection of my personal experiences
growing up in the cycle of poverty. In this work, I ruminate on my family’s troubled
history by building relationships with those of a similar background, finding people that are
simultaneously callous and tender. Through my images, I urge the viewer to understand the
emotional and psychological weight of living in poverty on an honest and human level.

Heirloom