I can’t rightly say I always wanted to be a photographer, in actual fact I became a photographer to piss an old teacher off. When I was younger I wanted to be an array of different things but not once did I dream of taking photos for a career let alone an obsessive hobby. At the time of starting secondary school I actually wanted to be more an Archaeologist than anything else, but when it came to the end of secondary school and I was doing a final year art project, I asked about using photography as a research method and my teacher said no, it wasn’t in the art syllabus and wasn’t acceptable for grading. After being told this I decided to be a bit different, a bit backwards, and not listen to what I was being told and I started to look into photography. I got a camera off my Dad and shot a full roll of film the same day. Now that I look back at it, i’m quite glad that my art teacher wasn’t open to using photographs as art.
The way I would describe my work is ‘People’. When I shoot a portrait or any other photo I’m looking for a connection to the subject, a connection from me as the photographer, and a connection from whoever might look at it, therefore plural, ‘People’. I would say personally i’m quite a shy person, I don’t open up easily, but when I sit down to take a photo of someone I can talk. I mainly talk about photography or something more specific to why that person is there. I can talk so easily because I know there is a photo I want, and I know I might not get it if this person doesn’t like me or doesn’t warm to me. Yeah, making the subject uneasy worked for Avedon, and he still made a connection with the subject, but my work is based around how confident I can be behind a camera, how confident am I of the photo I want.
I guess in a way, my biggest form of influence is ‘people watching’ and general conversation. It’s amazing how much you can learn and pick up from other people’s opinions on any subject. I came up with a project idea because someone I knew was complaining that day about a certain subject. Finding ideas this way feels more natural to me and the ideas are a bit more ‘organic’. Influences are everywhere, and I don’t think such a word can be tied down by specifics. As a photographer I should be able to find inspiration in everything, even if it’s just something small. In the end, everything is a photo at one point, just depends which one you decide to take.
Links:
Zenfolio: http://danieldale.zenfolio.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/deedleberry
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