Daniel McDaniel is an interdisciplinary artist with a goal of promoting an awareness of place using light, color, sculptural design elements, and playful interaction, according to his website. Not being one who over thinks art, I just think it’s pretty cool. He uses patterns, shapes, and lines that create movement and forces your eyes to bounce around the canvas: which for those who are keeping score at home, is also one of photography’s main goals.
A local magazine staff and myself met Duncan at his Nashville Art Up studio, he was to be featured in an upcoming issue. This shoot, for me, was very unique. Once I get an assignment, the same series of events always occur: I search the subject online, get a feel for how they’ve agreed to be photographed in the past, completely obsess about ideas and techniques, love what I’ve come up with, second guess what I’ve come up with, and finally bug family and friends with my self doubt. However, this shoot I did none of that. Just the knowledge of Duncan being an artist was all the information I needed.
When coming up with ideas for Duncan, I didn’t want to use any photography cliches, which there are plenty. Anyone can photograph an arm crossed artist holding paint brushes leaning against the wall of their studio. Cliches are cliche for a reason: ideas and concepts that are overused and betray a lack of original thought. For example, “Hey, are you photographing an athlete of some sort today? Here’s an idea, have them hold the ball and point it towards the camera. That’ll really knock their socks off!” NO THANKS……
It didn’t take long to come up with a cliche-free idea, in which my editor really liked and ultimately became excited about. I wanted to photograph Duncan as he was painting from the canvas’ perspective, meaning I had to shoot through the paint and see the brush strokes in action. For me to do so, I had to find some plexiglass.
Once the plexiglass was unwrapped using gloves as to not leave our fingerprints, it had to be suspended between two C-stands. It was then tilted forward slightly to ensure I won’t be seen in the reflection. And to put the final nail in the reflection’s coffin, I placed my Alien Bees AR800 light head on the opposite side of the glass as myself and off to the side. Per usual, I’m photographing with limited space, so I relied only on the single light head and a reflector. We took several test shots on the fly, it didn’t take long to NOT see myself in the plexiglass.
Duncan McDaniel posing in his studio while we test the light.
Duncan started by painting along the outside corners of his non-traditional canvas. As he did, I shot nonstop, never really knowing what to expect as he painted, circling inward, getting closer and closer to the center. The one thing I did know, once he had completed this piece, I was to get the shot I ultimately wanted: the artist peering through his finished work. His studio was so cluttered, I just couldn’t shoot straight on, or I’d see empty paint cans and Cracked magazines on the shelf. I was able to move to my right and find an empty space behind his head and took just a few more exposures. Though what I wound up shooting was not the exact idea I had in mind, it came damn close and I’m really pleased with how it looks. And ironically, the magazine didn’t use it. But whatevs.