David Jones
David Jones studies the history and theory of photography as it relates to the African diaspora. His research focuses on pre-industrial photography, specifically exploring transnational colonial networks and the gap between idealized constructions of space and the fraught reality of early photographic applications in the field. Foregrounding the conceptualization of ruination in the production of pre-industrial photographs, David’s research interrogates the ontological boundaries of property and the politics of safekeeping images. Prior to starting the art history program at Northwestern, David received his master’s degree in art history from York University in Toronto in 2022. His thesis focused on the relationship between sight and sound in photographs produced by the Black photographers of California (BPC) during the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. Additionally, he served as an assistant exhibition and project coordinator at Wedge Curatorial Projects in Toronto.
Outside of the program, David has collaborated with the Prison Neighborhood Arts + Education Project at Stateville and is an alumnus of the 2024 Harvard Art Museums’ Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art. His critical writing can be found in The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Archive and tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture.