Bio & Artist Statement

Artist Statement 
I have had a love of photography since I was 13, and a love affair with motorcycles since I was 24.

The two coalesced in 1994 when I packed my Mamiya RZ67 onto the back of the first of three Harley Davidson motorcycles, riding the first of nearly 24,000 miles criss-crossing the country and shooting the first of over 1400 negatives. 

These photographs are the result of my passion for taking pictures of the less traveled path and the joy of getting there.

Photographer
Since his youth, Rod Daniel has been taking and printing black and white photographs.  It wasn’t until he began to travel the quiet back roads of America on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that the combination of self-sufficiency and isolation that he felt was met in the landscape he found along the way.

The strong, solid and singular images in his photography confront us foremost with an immensely intimate sense of place.  The impact of the constancy between subject and space, the feel-it-on-your-skin use of light, and his full frame approach enable us to experience a sense of joy that comes from the recognition of the importance of seemingly insignificant objects.  These become, through the eyes of Rod Daniel, significant subjects through which we might discover a shared and common connection.

Bio
Rod Daniel, a Nashville native and graduate of Vanderbilt University, has returned to Nashville following his 25 years as a successful Hollywood director. Following his time in Vietnam as an army lieutenant, he began as a television advertising producer and commercial director in Nashville, then Atlanta, and then Chicago.  His Hollywood career began in 1978 when he joined WKRP in Cincinnati as a director.  From there, the list of Hollywood credits is long, with television shows from Newhart to Magnum P.I. to Everybody Loves Raymond to The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  His theatrical releases include Beethoven’s Second and Teen Wolf. as well as many other episodes for television and additional theatrical film credits.  He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. 

 

He has been actively engaged in developing his fine art photography portfolio over the last fifteen years, combining his motorcycle travels with photography on the road.