Over the past decade, North Vancouver photographer Danny Singer has created exquisite horizontal photographs featuring short sections of roadside towns in the U.S. and Canada. Aligned in rows are delicate, intimate “portraits” of farm buildings, houses, small hotels, outbuildings, stores, gas stations and parked cars. The formal compositions combined with glimpses of prairie life are reminiscent of views framed by car windows, with a surreal, almost clinical quality induced by Singer’s flattened perspectives. See the images at the National Film Board: http://mainstreet.nfb.ca
For Drive-by, Singer combined numerous shots of Vancouver taken by a camera mounted to his vehicle passenger window. Unlike Google’s drive-by shots, which maintain a respectful distance and filter out passing people, Singer’s newest break-out project is rich with movement and narrative. The colourful, chaotic content frequently looms into the viewer’s space and is full of motion blur. By editing and stitching, Singer has created a continuously blended image 70 feet long and 3 feet high. The enormous print reads like an action film.
Singer studied acting and film at Simon Fraser University then worked in the film department at CBC. In the 1970s he turned to photography and has since been the recipient of numerous Canada Council production grants. His popular work has been exhibited across Canada and collected by the Canada Council Art Bank, National Gallery of Canada, Glenbow Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery and Mendel Art Gallery. It was included in the 2010 Alberta Biennial. Two of his photographs will be in the Vancouver Art Gallery's upcoming exhibition of works from the Audain Collection.
www.seymourartgallery.com
