Article by the Artist.
Hello, my name is Dan. I am a Photographic Artist, Freelance Photographer, and the Director of Phonebooks in the Attic Gallery, based in Swansea, South Wales. A few years ago, I sat down with the Editor, Jordan Brinkworth, to talk about my work as part of Issue 1 of Art Etcetera. I grew up in the same social circles as Jordan, attending the same schools growing up, and theatre group, Neath Little Theatre. Having a mutual respect and unquenchable thirst for art, Jordan approached me to become involved with the magazine, through devising these digital versions of the magazine, writing articles as well as utilising my photographic skillset.
Some of the main sources of inspiration for my work come from various media outlets such as photography, books, film, TV and video games. So, I thought a great way to introduce myself would be through sharing some of my personal favourite artists, movies, shows and games. So without further ado here are my 7 Inspirations for my Photographic Practice.
Films/TV: They Live, Into the Wild, True Detective (S1):
They Live is a 1988 sci-fi action horror film, written and directed by John Carpenter, starring Roddy Piper and Keith David. The Film follows a Nomad, who discovers through specialised sunglasses, that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed and conform to the status quo through use of subliminal messaging within mass media. The movie is a fantastic social commentary and, if you’ve not seen it before, I thoroughly recommend you check it out!
Into the Wild is a 2007 biographical drama film written and directed by Sean Penn, based on a book of the same name written by Jon Krakauer. It tells the story of Christopher McCandless, a man who hiked across North America into the Alaskan Wilderness in the early 1990’s. The film adaptation is a beautifully shot feature, with some outstanding soundtracking courtesy of Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam.
True Detective’s first season is a nonlinear narrative, focusing on Louisiana State Police homicide detectives, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), who are investigating the murder of a young woman in 1995. Exploring themes of philosophical pessimism, masculinity and Christianity. The show was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and is stunningly shot in Louisiana over 3 months, and is widely acclaimed as one of the strongest TV dramas devised.
Photographers:
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer, who makes large scale cinematic, psychologically-charged prints of staged scenes, set in suburban landscapes and interiors. Crewdson directs a large production and lighting crew to construct these Spielberg-esque scenes.
Joel Sternfeld is a fine art photographer, best known for his large format colour images of contemporary American life and identity. Sternfeld documents people and places with unexpected excitement, despair, tenderness, and hope. Sternfeld’s work has interwoven the conceptual and political, while being steeped in history, landscape theory and his passion for the passage of the seasons. Sternfeld’s is a beautiful and sad portrait of America - ironic, lyrical, unfinished, seeing without judging.
Video Games:
Uncharted Series, Alan Wake 2. Uncharted is an action-adventure video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog (who also made the original Crash Bandicoot games). Created by Amy Hennig, the franchise follows a treasure hunter who travels the world to uncover historical mysteries and mythology. With some incredible voice acting from Nolan North as protagonist, Nathan Drake. Richard McGonagle as Victor Sullivan, and Emily Rose, as Elena Fisher, the games feel like you’re playing an Indiana Jones film, quips and all, courtesy of Nathan Drake.
Alan Wake 2 is a 2023 survival horror game, developed by Remedy Entertainment. A sequel to Alan Wake (2010), the story follows best-selling novelist Alan Wake, who has been trapped in an alternate dimension for 13 years, as he attempts to escape by writing a horror story involving an FBI Agent named Saga Anderson. The layers of different narratives being manipulated by Alan Wake through his writing can change the course of the entire game and is a cinematic masterpiece, appearing virtually indistinguishable from real life.
My photographic practice focuses predominantly on the ideology of the uncanny and the unreal, taking seemingly everyday images, and blurring the lines of reality through surrealism and manipulation. Utilising the skillset that I showcased through earning my Master’s degree in Photographic Art Practice, at Swansea College of Art, I am looking to uncover falsified truths through my image making.
For those who may have seen or know my work, my series, I Is Just Somebody Else, Some Stranger serves as a deep dive into the culture surrounding Americana and the seeming allure of visiting a new place as anyone you like, as no one there will know you. This gives the opportunity to engage with new people in whichever way you wish. I feel this then gave me a greater insight into perhaps a more real side of the US, that isn’t as Mickey Mouse ideal as the media attempts to portray. This led me to delve deeper into false truth and media manipulation, by travelling up the West Coast and hitting media hotspots like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, documenting my experiences with a Yashica T5 and a boatload of Portra 400 film (it was cheaper then).
Taking inspiration from various authors and travelling Nomad, Christopher John McCandless, my photographic series, I Is Just Somebody Else, Some Stranger also looks to serve as a falsified interpretation of the trip I took along the West Coast of the United States of America.
Within the book and film mentioned earlier, Into the Wild, tells the true story of a young man named Christopher John McCandless, who rejects society and its constrictions, and ventures out to live as a travelling Nomad.
“Thou shalt not return, ‘cause “the West is the best.” And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual revolution.” - Alexander Supertramp (Christopher John McCandless)
McCandless’ story is ultimately a harrowing one (SPOILER ALERT) as before he gets a chance to return home to his life, after two years of sofa surfing and sleeping out under the stars, he dies from accidentally eating some poisonous seeds (from a potato plant) that he finds in the wilderness of Alaska, losing the battle with the false being but momentarily achieving the spiritual revolution that he was desperate to conclude. Chris’ journey has become a pilgrimage to many like minded people, and I wanted to honour his journey through my own travels. By adopting pseudonyms and travelling via as many modes of transport available to me, I ventured into my own pilgrimage of self-discovery, through being someone who is not myself.
“Exploring a new space is always full of curiosity, but doing so as someone who is not yourself facilitates an experience that allows you to further explore yourself as a person. The masks you show to people, the intensities of the person that you want to portray yourself as, are revealed to you, as you seek to build an entirely new self. The United States is a land of promise, where you can be whoever you want to be; a statement suffused with a kind of fictional accuracy. The extremes to which people seem to go to be anyone but themselves are ludicrous. The population are raised with the mentality that you can do and achieve anything you could ever wish, it’s very apparent within the culture, in comparison to the small towns of South Wales.”
– Dan Morgan, 2018
In 2022, I founded Phonebooks in the Attic Art Gallery with the vision of creating a platform free from boundaries or censorship, where artists can freely showcase their work. My goal was to highlight the personal aspects of artists and their creative processes. I am passionate about amplifying the voices of those whose work may be overlooked, as well as providing a platform for artists who could benefit from support and recognition. By utilising Phonebooks, I aim to offer encouragement and promote artistic expression in its purest form. I’m always on the lookout for new art and works too, so keep an eye out!
My current photographic work in progress, 'Where the Names Were'. looks to continue and build on these aspects of falsified truths as a deep dive into the real and uncanny colliding. Through various means of photography and editing techniques, I am stitching narratives together through seemingly disconnected images. The project is looking to continue building on these themes and ideas, by adding locations to the images, to further enrich the narrative with half-truths and white lies. The work can then in turn serve as a reminder not to trust everything entirely, no matter how convincingly the “facts” have been laid out.
For this series, I am inspired by Remedy Entertainment’s latest AAA Video Game Alan Wake II. The Finnish developers perfectly integrate the idea of the False becoming real if it is written by the playable characters, adding to my themes that nothing can be trusted, and therefore nothing is truly real. Within the game, you control renowned author, Alan Wake and FBI Agent, Saga Anderson. Each character has the ability to create new plot lines within the game’s narrative, therefore changing the world around them, allowing you, as the player, to uncover more of the secrets surrounding the games’ location, Bright Falls. I am looking to incorporate these ideas with my image making, having different ‘facts’ interchangeable with multiple storylines or potential narrative structures to my work, allowing the viewer to have control of where the narrative goes. As this is a current work in progress, I am keeping my cards close to my chest regarding the themes and potential narratives for the time being but be sure to be on the lookout for teasers and more information to come.
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