10 Questions with Connor Daly

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE14 | INNER COVER Artist

Daly is a British fine art photographer from Jersey (Channel Islands), currently based in the UK. He studied at the Arts University Bournemouth from 2014-17, graduating with a BA Hons in Commercial Photography. Shortly after graduation, he went on to work as an assistant for several well-known photographers in the UK, such as Karen Thomas, Robert Wilson, Joseph Ford, Will Pryce, Holliday Kedik, and Adam Luzniak. He has been working on his own work solely since 2020, which has seen his practice expand into various disciplines within photography, exploring a wide range of visual styles and conceptual ideas.

connordalystudio.com

ARTIST STATEMENT

Daly's work explores varying levels of colour and compositional effects that provoke spatial ambiguity, using a painterly and abstract style that is evocative of nostalgia, memory, and the passing of time. He strives to work against contemporary inclinations in photography (which are indicative of the heavy consumption of literature and photographic theory). In this way, his work can be seen as arguing for its essential difference from traditional understanding and practices within photography, as colour, tone, and composition intersect to create something that hints at deeper narratives and moral allusions within, focusing on aesthetic effects as a means of creating a particular sensation or experience. Furthermore, his work is predominantly concerned with the depiction of a space, exploring broad visual styles that present complex emotions that go beyond the technicalities of the photographic process. Daly maintains that certain experiences are often best expressed through nuance and implication, attempting to capture the essence of an intangible, personal, and intimate moment.

Colour Fields | Project Statement

This series was heavily influenced by the Colour Field movement in the mid-20th Century, taking reference from painters within this area, such as Barnett Newman, Frank Stella, Clyfford Still, Josef Albers (a pioneer of colour theory), and others. I was interested in making a body of work that uses colour as the mode of communication, with the composition elements becoming secondary, with the overall statement of the work being purposefully ambiguous.

INTERVIEW

Please, tell us a little bit about your background and studies. What kind of education or training helped you develop your approach to art and photography?

I have a strong background in the Arts, as my Grandad was a photographer (for around 30 years), and my Dad is an artist, so I have always been exposed to creativity. I studied art all through school, then went onto college to study higher education for the arts, settling on photography in the second year. I remember seeing a book called 'Helmand' by the photographer Robert Wilson in the library, which really instilled in me the power of photography to communicate visually. Incidentally, I went onto assist Robert around seven years later, which is kind of poetic in the way that photography connected us. Robert sent me a signed copy of Helmand a couple of years ago, which I have at my studio. After finishing college, I went onto study at The Arts University Bournemouth (2014-17), during which time I learned how to use a long list of lighting, digital and camera equipment as well as the theoretical aspects of photography. The two years I spent assisting were highly instructive and informative, and it gave me a deep insight into the world of commercial photography. 

You trained in Commercial Photography but only decided to start your career with Fine Art Photography in 2020. Why did you make this shift? 

I always planned to work commercially, but circumstances out of my control (Covid-19 and long-term illness) prevented me from pursuing the goals I had set out originally. Retrospectively, I think the pursuit of my fine art is more fulfilling than the pursuit of commercial work. Commercial photography (whilst potentially lucrative) is innately mundane, and I need to feel something when I work. It's more of a struggle financially to work this way, however, and I understand that everyone has different priorities. 

For many years you worked as an assistant for several well-known photographers in the UK, "such as Karen Thomas, Robert Wilson, Joseph Ford, Will Pryce, Holliday Kedik, and Adam Luzniak," as you recall in your biography. What did you learn from them? And how was this training different from that you received in University? 

Each of the photographers I worked for gave me something unique and invaluable. They are all highly regarded in their respective areas, and many of them started out as assistants, working for long-forgotten 'old school' photographers. There are so many qualities I could point out about each of them, but it would take too long. They were all kind, generous, uncompromising, intelligent and possessing an obsessive attention to detail. It's hard to quantify who taught what, as a lot of the learning process happens organically, without specified points. I learned to run, be efficient, be calm, be present, be attentive, ask questions and take criticism. It was about understanding the photographer and their needs and quirks to make their life/job easier. University showed me how to use lighting and equipment, but it did not teach me how to be an assistant or a photographer, which is something I think is not made clear when students go to university (as I experienced). 

Let's talk about your creative process. You work with abstract compositions characterized by bold colors, some of which seem to be recurring nuances that you always incorporate in your photographs. Do they have any specific meaning for you? And how do you choose them?

The use OF colour in my work has been an ongoing visual experiment since 2017, during which time I have produced several bodies of work utilising broad colour palettes. I am deeply interested in how colour can be used to communicate at a subconscious level and the individual associations we make with colour. Josef Albers' Interaction Of Colour' has been highly informative to me throughout this period. The choices I make when developing an images visual palette is difficult to explain, as a lot of the decisions happen through streams of consciousness and immersive experimentation. There is an element of control in my work but also an undercurrent of organic creative flow.

On the same note, in the series "Colour Fields," you use color as the primary focus of your work, much like painters in the Colour Field movement of the 20th Century. How did you translate the work of these painters into photographic images? In other words, how did those pioneers influence your work as a photographer?

Josef Albers, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Frank Stella, Jack Bush and Mark Rothko were key influences in the development of my 'Colour Fields' series, as the series is a homage to the Colour Field movement and their work (as well as others). The Colour Field painters are something of an anomaly, as they basically flipped hundreds of years of traditions within painting on its head, and it really shook up the art world at the time, changing the public perception of painting forever. The Colour Field painters wanted to change what painting was and could be, which is something I am constantly attempting to do in photography. Mark Rothko once said, "I'm not an abstractionist. I'm not interested in the relationship of colour or form or anything else. I'm interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on." I remember seeing one of Rothko's red Monochromes in the Tate Modern in 2012, and I was immersed in a state of bliss (or perhaps existential doom) when confronted by the beautiful canvas on the wall with its deep shades of red. 

In your work, you give much importance to space and the construction of the photo. What messages do you want to convey with your photographs? And how do you convey those messages visually? 

One of the main things I attempt to do in Photography is to photograph mundane things beautifully and beautiful things mundanely. This paradox is at the epicentre of my practice and informs the overall trajectory of my work. People often ask me, "Why do you do it like this?" or "Why do you frame it this way?". The answer to that is fairly simple, the rule of thirds. It's one of the fundamental aspects of composition, but when used in unusual ways, it can be visually spectacular. 

Together with your abstract images, which make up the majority of your work, you also worked on some portraits. How does your approach to photography change when portraying humans? 

Yes, I do occasionally make portraits. When I am photographing a person, I am always trying to capture something unique about that individual. Something that subtly hints at their personality and their human condition. Portraits are difficult for me, as I think there is so many photographs of people posted online now that portrait photography has lost its overall visual impact, lost in a boundless sea of images. 

Is there any other subject or technique you would like to implement?

I would like to photograph North Korea one day, which I am researching at the moment. It's notoriously difficult to get permission to take photographs, and I love negotiating. 

Let's talk about the future. What are you working on now, and what are your plans for the future? Anything exciting you can tell us about?

I have a number of ongoing projects at the moment. I am returning to my series 'Phantasmagoria' this year, where I am photographing 100 historic village hall stages across the UK. This will eventually be published as a book. I'm photographing environmental landscapes across the UK as part of an arts commission this summer, which will be published online later in the year, with a solo exhibition planned for 2024. I also have upcoming exhibitions in South Korea and Tokyo. 

Finally, any shows, galleries, or publications where our readers can find your work?

You can find my work online at Petapixel, Photo Focus, Plain Magazine, Almanac and The Photo Argus.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.