Biography
Born in 1970, Daniel Southard grew up in the relentlessly expanding suburbs of San Diego. He was deeply affected by the changes to the American landscape wrought by this suburban revolution. He first came to know photography through his father’s darkroom. From the first time he ever saw a camera and witnessed the developing image emerge in the developer, he was enamored by the magic of catching and holding a moment and how it allowed him more time to pause and ponder. For him, photography has always been the best mode of understanding his world more fully. Photography is his way of longing, his poetry, his expression.
His many years with a camera have made his photographic vision true and fluid, and during these same years in the darkroom, he has grown to become an expert printer, using the tools of dark and light to fully realize and expand on the raw material of the image captured on film. He continues to wander, catching the golden hour, walking briskly through rush and thicket, considering the walls and fences that divide. He absorbs the presence of the place the meaning of our place within it. In swift motions with his mechanical camera, using only eye and gut as the meter, he seemingly wishes the moment onto the film. Frequenting fallow pastures, forgotten hoop houses, and ancient gardens surviving long after the houses have disappeared, Daniel’s eye seeks and creates life and renewal amidst the whispering calm of decay.
Chronological Biography
1970 Born, Boulder, Colorado, USA
1972 San Diego, California, USA
1977 Helped father print in kitchen darkroom.
1983 Developed his first roll of film
1989 Arcata, California, USA
2005 Graduated Humboldt State University, California, Bachelor of Arts
Solo Shows
1996 Foyer Gallery, Humboldt State University, “Human Nature”
2002 Foyer Gallery, Humboldt State University, “Blood”
2008 Piante Gallery, Eureka, California, “To Become the Light”
2011 Stair Gallery, Arcata, California, “Beginnings and Endings”
Selected Group Shows