DonovanSouppa
I am a Boston- and Florida-based photographer, conservationist, and visual storyteller, born and raised in Southwest Florida. While I have always held a deep love for both conservation and photography, it wasn’t until high school that I began to understand and explore the relationship between the two. From documenting local wildlife in Florida to capturing portraits of critically endangered species in the Peruvian Amazon, I have spent the last ten years forming meaningful connections with the natural world.
Through my photography, I strive to document the visual expression of mutual connection. I build relationships with my subjects, often sitting quietly and maintaining space with the animals I am grateful to encounter. My intention in creating these portraits is to highlight moments of vulnerability and trust that exist within the ever-evolving relationship—and conflict—between humans and the natural world.
In May 2025, I graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor’s degree in Integrated Studies. Through this program, I was given the opportunity to approach education through an individualized and interdisciplinary lens. While unconventional within a traditional college framework, the program has become foundational to both how I navigate my day-to-day life and how I approach my artistic and professional practice. This structure allowed me to explore the intersections of Media Studies, Mixed Media Production, and Environmental Education, with a focus on sustainability interwoven throughout the coursework. With the support of my professors and the department, I examined how film, television, and photography can function as catalysts for awareness and change—shaping conversations around culture, community, and the environment.
Since finishing school, I have moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where my work has undergone a quiet but significant shift. Using the tools I gained in college, I have leaned further into the ways sustainability continues to shape and evolve my practice. While my work remains rooted in observation and connection, it has become more personal and reflective, documenting a fragile and exciting transition in my own life. I have begun to turn my lens toward the ways community is formed, sustained, and held together. Where my work once focused on sustaining the presence of wildlife through observation, it has expanded to include the preservation of culture and human connection.
In recent years, I have turned to film photography as an analog practice that allows me to sustain both my presence and that of my subjects in an impactful, lasting way. The physical nature of the medium slows the act of observing and has motivated me to become more intentional with the moments I capture. This work reflects an ongoing awareness that time does not allow anything to exist forever in its current state. For me, film photography has become a quiet yet effective method of sustainability.
Donovan Souppa