Spotlight

Spotlight is a regular Q&A series delivering the voices of storytellers in visual media. Every month, The Daring spotlights a different visual storyteller through an in-depth conversation about their creative process and most moving work.

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There Is No End to Gloria Deitcher

“You need space in your head to be creative, and you need to float.”

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Rachel Wyman’s Meditative Return to Her Most Natural State

Dancing in the fields of Walla Walla and in the rooms of a Brooklyn psychiatric ward forces Rachel Wyman to reconsider a traditional path to dance movement therapy and inspires her new paintings, “Blue Pajamas.”

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New York, Time Machine

Abby Robinson’s ‘Lamentation’, photographs featuring plywood, chronicles a period of protest and civil unrest in a Soho you won’t find on any walking tour.

Yuge Zhou’s New Video Installation Is a Provocative Ride Through Chinese American History

Project Unity: Ten Miles of Track in One Day memorializes 20,000 Chinese emigrants employed by Central Pacific Railroad to build the transcontinental railroad.

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“You Hear All the Time, Animals Have No Voice. It’s True.”: Linda Kuo on Portraying Wildlife

Linda Kuo’s photographs exhibit resilience, adaptation, and the unsung struggles of domesticated and wild animals…

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Chris Facey, Untitled image from the double Dutch story (Copyright © Chris Facey)
Girls Who Fly: Photos Celebrating the Power of Double Dutch

Chris Facey highlights resilience and the importance of community through photos of double Dutch that leap with overflowing joy.

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Fred Hatt’s Triumphant Portraits Bring a Fresh Perspective on the Human Body

“We can only experience the world in the form of a body that is inherently temporary”: The artist talks about the human form, drawing people, and why he takes such a multidisciplinary approach.

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Artist and conservator Lisa DiClerico in her studio, Long Island City, New York | José A. Alvarado Jr. for The Daring
The Art of Painting a New York That No Longer Exists

“The stories of objects and surfaces are the stories of people, time, and history,” says artist and conservator Lisa DiClerico

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Anna King
Inside Anna King’s Photos of Pleasure and Tedium

“My visual language is a little chaotic, human.” The photographer revels in wild, disorienting photos that turn the everyday into magic.

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Visual Storyteller Nicholas Loffredo is broadening the definition of queerness
Nicholas Loffredo Is Broadening the Definition of Queerness

Meet Nicholas Loffredo, whose self-portraits bridge drag racing and queer ballroom cultures. Here, he talks about identity and what art can make possible.

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Madge Yang
A New Kind of Historical Record

Madge Yang’s multi-media collages depict nuances of the Asian American experience

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Photo essay on mental health
Seeing the Mind: A Narrative Photo Essay About Mental Health

“I’m making photographs to break the stigma around depression and anxiety,” says Fabric Of Affliction creator Andy Maticorena Kajie

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Jake Dylan on Collage Art, Provoking Creative Thinking

The New York-based photographer on his creative routines, learning to trust his instincts, and why abstract art pushes his vision forward.

“Kolkata’s Ethnicity Is Within People in Small Areas”: Akshat Bagla on Local Storytelling

The New York-based photographer journeyed back to the land where he grew up and where his family still lives, aiming to further understand Kolkata’s history and document the culturally layered metropolis.

Meet Photographer Aileen Barney Whose Images Preserve the Fading Circus Industry

With circuses on the decline, photographs that preserve their legacy are becoming more vital. Photographer Aileen Barney talks about growing up in the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the emotional portraits she’s made of her father, who produced shows for the legendary troupe.

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Melissa Schriek on Human Connection, Choreographing Dancers

The Dutch photographer talks about pushing her comfort zone and creating before thinking

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Stunning Still-Life Photographs Break the Silence Around Anorexia

“This was a way for me to show how serious and deadly this mental illness can be”: Massimo Gammacurta.