BIOGRAPHY David Simonton, Raleigh, NC

Preview, the publication of the North Carolina Museum of Art, called David Simonton “one of our state’s finest photographers." In 2004, the museum purchased fifteen of his photographs to inaugurate the North Carolina Photography Acquisitions Program.

David Simonton moved to North Carolina in 1989 and proceeded to make it his subject: he has now photographed in 360 cities and towns across the state. His photographs have been included in group and solo exhibitions around North Carolina, and in juried exhibitions nationwide. His work has received numerous awards, perhaps most notably at the 12th Annual Center Awards Exhibition, sponsored by the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California. The exhibition’s juror, Weston Naef, former Curator of Photographs at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, singled out Simonton’s photographs for a special Juror Award (Second Prize) selecting from nearly 8,000 images submitted by an international field of 530 photographers. Naef cited his work’s “originality of expression, strong guiding idea, skillful use of the chosen photographic materials, personal integrity and relevance to our own times.”

Simonton’s pictures have appeared in Photography Quarterly, The Photo Review, and The Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South. He has twice been a semifinalist for the Center for Documentary Studies/Honickman First Book Prize in Photography (2002, 2004). And he is the recipient of grants and commissions, including two Visual Artist Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council (2000, 2008).

David Simonton also teaches photography, including as a part-time faculty member at Peace College in Raleigh (1997-2009).