Daniel Efram's Artist Statement:
For most of my life, I have been involved with producing and managing artistic endeavors for predominantly music projects. My main client over the last 18 years (!) has been the indie-rock group The Apples in stereo, but I've worked on the marketing, promotion and development of dozens of music albums, television programs and live music productions.
In 2016, I curated Modular Synthesis, two shows for the painter Steve Keene. One was at the Brooklyn Public Library, the other at Shepard Fairey's Los Angeles gallery, Subliminal Projects.
My world has always involved being around creative minds with both serious and not-so-serious creative visions.
In 2008, my mother became seriously ill and it had a profound effect on my career and lifelong objectives. At the same time my desire to pursue more personal creative endeavors came to light, while I still had energy to do so. During this period, I had increasingly less personal time, and I needed to make it count. If I had 30 minutes to spare, I needed to get away from the pressures of caring for the family. One day, I picked up a camera and got to lose myself in the moment. Photography became my go to for cleansing my brain of the weight of family illness and care - which had become a full time job.
After my parents had both passed and I was done taking care of family legal obligations, I travelled to Europe, the first time I had been able to get away in years. I hoped it would take my mind off of the dark realities that had occupied my world. It turned out to be a life changer.
On that trip, I (duh!?) took a lot of photos and got into an excellent regimen each day of really studying what I was capturing. Everyone knows, when you want to hone your skills at anything, repetition is key. Practice! That Summer, I took literally thousands of photos, each day, going home and analyzing what was taken. Though it was fun, it was also bordering on compulsive.
Upon my return to NYC, I showed some shots to my friend Deb Caponera who curates a wonderful cafe' series in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, who was nice enough to ask me if I was interested in showing my work. Another friend, Andrea, ended up offering me opportunities to show my art in a similar way at the restaurant she worked at in Warwick, NY.
These were inspiring times and I am forever grateful. Without any expectations at all, I sold a bunch of prints and more importantly, realized I was hooked creatively. A year later, I was fortunate to have a show at Howl Happening in the East Village. My friends Ron Ward & The Dream Lovers played improvised music to my abstract films and stills. The show involved making three, 45 min films that showed concurrently. A ton of work, but with an amazing outcome! Specifically inspired by this event, Ron Ward & The Dream Lovers recorded an album with producer / guitarist Jon Spencer. Inspiring stuff!
Looking back, I had never expected anything from photography, but it has given me so much. Most importantly, its my inspiration... we all need inspiration. We all need to dream. In dark times - like the last 2 years - its been very important to find inspiration and aspiration... some words that had been lost to me for a few years. I feel like I've made a creative comeback!
Because I'm ambitious and don't like to make things easy for myself, this project is not simply a photo book, its a campaign that includes the limited-edition book, prints & postcards, a gallery premiere show and distributing the book to a large database of gallery and festival curators around the world.
The facts:
Photographer: Daniel Efram
All Photographs © daniel Efram
More Info About Daniel and his work HERE.
Daniel's Kickstarter Campaign HERE.
My good friend, and brilliant graphic designer, Steven Jurgensmeyer, introduced me to the work of Daniel Efram. You will see that they are black and white, phantasmagorical images – my personal passion.
These images are from Dan’s soon to be published book titled “Curiosities”.
Nicole Blackman sums it up quite well in her introduction. She states that “his photographs feel like a single frame, selected from a movie reel. Choose one and you see a romantic comedy. Choose another and it’s clearly a tragedy.”
There is Dan’s artist statement and info below as well as a link to his Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the book, prints & postcards, a gallery premiere show and distribution of the book to a large database of gallery and festival curators around the world.
