Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
✨ “Art is how you preserve history and how you expand the conversation.” ✨
Meet Donavon Smallwood, a Harlem-based photographer whose connection to Central Park started young. His first book, Languor, was shot entirely in the Park!
Before Central Park was created, the land along what is now the Park’s west side, from West 82nd Street to West 89th Street, was home to Seneca Village—a thriving community of African-American landowners, alongside Irish and German immigrant families. It was one of the few places in the city where Black New Yorkers could own property and live free from the discrimination and overcrowding of lower Manhattan.
Learning that history changed how Don sees and photographs this space.
✨ “Art is how you preserve history and how you expand the conversation.” ✨
Meet Donavon Smallwood, a Harlem-based photographer whose connection to Central Park started young. His first book, Languor, was shot entirely in the Park!
Before Central Park was created, the land along what is now the Park’s west side, from West 82nd Street to West 89th Street, was home to Seneca Village—a thriving community of African-American landowners, alongside Irish and German immigrant families. It was one of the few places in the city where Black New Yorkers could own property and live free from the discrimination and overcrowding of lower Manhattan.
Learning that history changed how Don sees and photographs this space.
