2026 State of the Art Prize, Utah

About Russel Albert Daniels

Salt Lake City, UT

Russel Albert Daniels is a documentary photographer and artist whose work explores the complex relationships between Indigenous identity, colonization, and cultural resilience. Drawing from his Diné (Navajo), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago, and Anglo-Mormon heritage, Daniels documents the complex realities of Native American communities while challenging historical erasures and misrepresentations. His ongoing project La Cautiva examines centuries of Indigenous enslavement and captivity in the American Southwest, including his own ancestor’s experiences. This work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and is featured alongside Georgia O’Keeffe paintings of Abiquiu, New Mexico at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2024-2026, curated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first Indigenous curator – Patricia Norby. Daniels’ photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. His assignment work appears regularly in The New York Times, Mother Jones, and High Country News. Based in Utah, Daniels employs collaborative methodologies that center Indigenous perspectives while bridging documentary traditions with contemporary visual storytelling. His work challenges viewers to reconsider America’s historical narratives while celebrating the resilience of Native peoples.

Russel Albert Daniels is a documentary photographer and artist whose work explores the complex relationships between Indigenous identity, colonization, and cultural resilience. Drawing from his Diné (Navajo), Ho-Chunk (Winnebago, and Anglo-Mormon heritage, Daniels documents the complex realities of Native American communities while challenging historical erasures and misrepresentations. His ongoing project La Cautiva examines centuries of Indigenous enslavement and captivity in the American Southwest, including his own ancestor’s experiences. This work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and is featured alongside Georgia O’Keeffe paintings of Abiquiu, New Mexico at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2024-2026, curated by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s first Indigenous curator – Patricia Norby. Daniels’ photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX and the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. His assignment work appears regularly in The New York Times, Mother Jones, and High Country News. Based in Utah, Daniels employs collaborative methodologies that center Indigenous perspectives while bridging documentary traditions with contemporary visual storytelling. His work challenges viewers to reconsider America’s historical narratives while celebrating the resilience of Native peoples.