Featured artists
The artists whose work lives on this site.
Dorna runs on borrowed beauty. Every illustration, every painting, every photograph on these pages was made by a real person, named here with a link back to where the rest of their work lives. If you'd like your work featured (or a piece of yours removed), write to us.
Reza Rostampisheh
Iranian diaspora, based in Los Angeles
Photographer with Iranian roots, based in Los Angeles. Available for hire on Unsplash. Reza's quiet still-life work, including this image of folded paper planes on concrete, finds the small everyday object and gives it room to be looked at. He shoots on a Google Pixel.
Featured work: Origamis on concrete pavement, 2019. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Amauri Mejía
Metepec, Mexico
Photographer based in Metepec, Mexico. Available for hire on Unsplash. This close-up of a painter's hand smeared in green and blue catches the moment when the work is in the maker's body, not on the wall.
Featured work: Person hand with green and blue paint, 2017. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Taelynn Christopher
United States
Photographer shooting on iPhone, sharing work freely on Unsplash. This image of painted hands, captured while painting a mural, is one of her widely-used pieces.
Featured work: Person with painted hands, 2018. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Mick Haupt
United States
Photographer shooting on a Canon EOS R5. This close-up of a page densely packed with words sits between a portrait of a book and a portrait of language itself, fitting for the work of translation, which is making the same words live in another tongue.
Featured work: A close up of a book with a lot of words on it, 2023. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Marcos Paulo Prado
Brazilian, based in Canada
Photographer with Brazilian roots, based in Canada. Available for hire on Unsplash. The photo caption simply reads, "She writes poems.", a close, intentionally quiet portrait of a hand at work on a page.
Featured work: Woman writing in notebook with pen, 2020. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Jeff James
United States
Photographer shooting on a Nikon D5100, sharing his work freely on Unsplash. This piece, captioned simply "anxiety,", catches a hand holding a small drawing on lined paper, an artifact more than a portrait.
Featured work: Person holding paper with drawing, 2020. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Ben Mullins
United States
Photographer shooting on a Canon EOS 5D. This image of two small children sharing an open book on a sofa, leaning into each other, captures the social half of reading that's hard to photograph.
Featured work: Two children reading a book while sitting on a brown sofa, 2018. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Sammy Wong
Hong Kong
Photographer who travels to find the world's quieter wildlife. This image of two red-crowned cranes walking together through a snowfield in Kushiro, Japan, is the bird that gave the foundation its name. Cranes mate for one life and return to the same wetlands year after year.
Featured work: Two cranes walking in the snow together, 2021. Photograph (Kushiro, Japan)
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Chris Briggs
California, United States
Wildlife photographer based in California. Available for hire. This image catches sandhill cranes mid-migration over the Cosumnes River, the high silhouettes that, in many cultures, are read as the year turning back toward warmth.
Featured work: Sandhill cranes flying, 2020. Photograph (Cosumnes River, California)
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Richard Payette
United States
Photographer shooting on an iPhone. The image is captioned simply, "Do you want me to tell you a story?", a small reading nook on a hardwood floor, scattered with throw pillows, waiting for a child to fill it.
Featured work: Do you want me to tell you a story?, 2019. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Annie Spratt
United Kingdom
Documentary photographer based in the New Forest, UK. Annie has shared thousands of photos on Unsplash under the free license, including warm domestic and childhood scenes. This image of a child reading in bed, surrounded by open books, is one of her most-used.
Featured work: A little girl laying on a bed with lots of books, 2017. Photograph
License: Free under the Unsplash License, via Unsplash.
Bronislav Bystrushkin
Russia
As a schoolboy in the late 1930s, Bronislav painted watercolors of the world around him: log houses, fairy tales, summers by the river. His family later shared the paintings on Wikimedia Commons so they could keep being seen. This one, children fishing on a summer day, was painted when he was about eleven, which is exactly the point: the Send It On children's card is illustrated by a child.
Featured work: Summer, c. 1937. Watercolor, painted at age 11
License: CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A young artist (via Oyvind Holmstad)
Norway
A child's felt-pen drawing of a yellow house under a wide sky, photographed and shared by Oyvind Holmstad so drawings like this could keep being seen. Chosen for the Home edition because it is exactly what the call asks for: a home, drawn by a child, in the child's own hand.
Featured work: Yellow house, 2017. Child's drawing
License: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An 11-year-old artist (MissLunaRose)
United States
Drawn by an autistic eleven-year-old: three friends sitting on the floor, talking and laughing, characters from a novel she was writing. For the Home edition's line about the people around your table, home made of people.
Featured work: Three friends, 2007. Child's drawing
License: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
An 11-year-old artist (MissLunaRose)
United States
A storybook cover drawn by the same eleven-year-old: a girl who lives inside a great hollow tree, opening her door to welcome friends. A home that is a tree, for the paragraph about homes that don't look the same for everyone.
Featured work: The girl who lives in a tree, 2007. Child's drawing
License: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A young artist (via Senor Codo)
United States
Spin art made by a child: paint flung into colour by pure motion. For the making paragraph, draw it, paint it, sing it, the joy of making before any rules arrive.
Featured work: Spin art, 2006. Spin art
License: CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A young artist (via Carla Blanq)
Spain
A child's drawing of a house with its chimney and path, shared as an example of how children draw home. Simple, certain lines: a house the way a child knows it.
Featured work: Casa, 2015. Child's drawing
License: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A young artist (via Jean Gagnon)
Canada
A child's painting of a house with a pink roof and yellow chimney, bare trees on either side, a sun in the corner and blue stars around it. Bright, warm, and completely unafraid, the way home looks at six.
Featured work: House with a pink roof, 2024. Child's painting
License: CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
A young artist (Ross family)
United States
Abstract child art from the Ross family in Reno: colour for colour's sake. For the closing beat, fold your idea of home into something you can send.
Featured work: Abstract, 2006. Child's painting
License: CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
