Worldly Whys

Dan is a London-based photographer. Specialising in visual arts, the photographer boasts an impressive portfolio with clients including the ICA, Whitechapel Gallery, the National Theatre and Tate. Although we’ve long been fans of Dan’s work, Zetteler has recently got to know the photographer and his work a little better, having collaborated on a number of projects for clients including Coops, Camille Walala, Clerkenwell London and Alex Booker. 

We’re also big fans of Dan’s Instagram feed and Worldly Whys blog. While his Instagram feed captures everyday occurrences, mostly in London, through the eyes of a photographer, Worldy Whys is a slightly more curated edition: the best of the feed being uploaded to the website every couple of months. 

We thought it was high time that we quizzed Dan on his practice. In the below interview Dan discusses his dream photo shoot, looking dweeby with his very first camera, and who he looks to for inspiration. 

I was given a Ricoh point and shoot camera as an early birthday present. I used to wear it holstered onto the belt of my jeans. I thought it terribly cool, but it was most definitely dweeby. I think I wanted a camera to ape my dad, I remember him taking a lot of photos as my family grew up.

 

Gah! There’s so many things that I’d love to photograph. I couldn’t give you a specific thing as such but I’m happiest with a camera when I’m travelling or walking. I need to go to South America.

Thank you. The Worldly Whys diary is just a way to give my favourite images from my instagram feed a little more breathing space and a chance to see them a bit bigger than on my phone. I have over 2,000 images on my feed so if I want to see any of the earlier images it would take ages to scroll down and wait for them to load, so it’s partly a tool to capture the better images and have them to refer to in an easier format. There’s probably some really simple trick or app that I’m not aware of to combat this but it will do for now.

 

There’s no daily shortlist as such. I add images every one or two months, sparingly. Each image that goes into my original feed doesn’t have a huge amount of thought or pondering as it’s an on-the-fly diary. For an image to make it from feed to Worldly Whys it needs to grab me a second time and make me want to keep looking at it.

 

Yes, I’m conscious of the fact that I don’t make enough personal work. Though I do manage to take images for an ongoing project that is very insignificant in my mind but gives me pleasure doing it (see the Jazzy Lower Legs gallery on website), so I think that’s okay. I genuinely love what I do so it doesn’t always feel like work, which is an amazing thing.

 

I’m based in Stepney/ Mile End and have been for the past five years. I don’t have a studio, or the need for one at the moment.

 

Collaborating with nice people.

 

Number of hard drives required and file transfer times. 

 

William Eggleston, Martine Franck, Homer Sykes, Alec Soth, Pieter Hugo, Matt Stuart, Viviane Sassen, Charalampos Kydonakis (AKA Dirty Harry), James Barnor and Jon Tonks.