Dan McCormack – Q4 Art Competition

Artist Portfolio Magazine – 2017 Q4 Art Competition

Dan McCormack – Accord, NY

I began studying Photography around 1962 at the Institute of Design in Chicago. My studies with Aaron Siskind, Joe Jachna, Arthur Siegal and Wynn Bullock gave me first hand experience with truly creative photographers. Next at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967, working on an MFA in Photography, I began photographing the nude with Wendy, my wife. Then for over forty-eight years, I explored various techniques and processes while photographing the nude as a central theme. In 1982 I won a NYSCA-CAPS Photography Fellowship and in 2009, I won the Ultimate Eye Foundation’s grant for Figurative Photography. I currently head the film Photography program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

The Nude at Home

I use the extreme wide angle distortions of the round oatmeal cylindrical pinhole camera with 8×10 B&W film and digital colorization to create a series of visceral images. Through successive pulling of curves in Photoshop, B&W values are replaced with subtle color. I photograph the model nude in her home, apartment or studio. With the model in her own space, all the objects in the image are a part of the life of the model. Then the pose, the furniture and the long, two minute exposures reveal an intimate portrait of the subject. As this work evolved, I have had three solo shows in Poughkeepsie, Beacon and Phoenicia, NY.