Dan Burkholder received both his BA and Master’s Degrees from Brooks Institute of Photography. No stranger to traditional photography, he was a workshop student of Ansel Adams and his mastery of the wet darkroom was highlighted by serving as assistant to both John Sexton and Jerry Uelsmann. In the early 1990’s, he was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology. Originating the digital-negative process in 1992, Dan has helped open doors for all black and white photographers interested in moving into the new electronic technologies.
His award-winning book, Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing, is regarded as the most authoritative work in the field.
In 2008, University of Texas Press published The Color of Loss: An Intimate Portrait of New Orleans after Katrina, a monograph of Dan’s images made in the flooded interiors of homes, schools, churches and workplaces in post-Katrina New Orleans. Dan is always pushing the creative envelope and over the years he has printed a variety of traditional and digital fine art prints, including platinum prints, platinum over palladium prints, platinum over gold foil prints, pigment over platinum prints, pigmented ink prints and HDR (High Dynamic Range) prints. His exquisite prints are included in private and museum collections internationally.
Dan has been teaching digital imaging workshops around the world for many years, including The School of the Art Institute, Chicago; The Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; The International Center of Photography, NY; Santa Fe Workshops; The Royal Photographic Society of Spain; Anderson Ranch and many others. Dan’s workshops are famous for their energy, information and humor. Active with the Texas Photographic Society for many years, he is currently serving on the advisory board for this organization.
Dan's new book, The Color of Loss: An Intimate Portrait of New Orleans after Katrina, documents the flooded interiors of post-Katrina New Orleans in dramatic fashion.
Dan lives in Palenville, New York, with his wife, Jill Skupin Burkholder, and many pet friends.
Besides photography, Dan enjoys spending time with Jill, motorcyling, and exploring their new home in the Hudson River Valley.
Dan describes his newest work...
Recently, I've shown mostly color photographic prints. It feels both strange and exciting to embrace color with such enthusiasm. After all, I'm known best as something of a master of the handmade print. So why change now?
My photographic roots of decades ago were set deep in the soil of color photography. Then, my artistic quest for creative control and archival permanence (and my Germanic quest for, well...control) led me to the monochrome print, usually in its most exquisite form, the platinum/palladium print. But photography is changing and a big part of that change is a new set of rules for both permanence and control.
For the longest time I was convinced that I saw the world better as a black and white photographer. I focused on the tonal design of the landscape and tuned out the world of color, hue and saturation. Now I'm intrigued at the new colorful ways that I can use a camera and a pigmented ink print to express my vision. In other words, I'm having a great time with color as a new photographic tool.
I'm not abandoning the handmade platinum/palladium print. There will always be something special and precious about a print that is coated by hand, actually exposed to light and then chemically bathed in the alchemy-like atmosphere of the classic darkroom. In fact, as soon as this show is hung I'm looking forward to quiet days in the quiet solitude of the chemical darkroom. The only difference is that now, I'll also be looking forward to the next color printing session as well.
We have many of Dan Burkholder's wonderful phopographic prints in stock and on display at sun to moon gallery. We invite you to come view them.
Sun to Moon Gallery
1515 Levee Street
Dallas, TX 75207
Phone 214.745.1199
SUN TO MOON GALLERY
PHOTOGRAPHER'S BIO
Dan Burkholder