“Whatever. I sound like an asshole complaining about that.”
Before he would gain over 200k followers, shoot red carpet celebrities at the 2019 Met Ball for Vogue, be lauded as “the best photographer on Instagram” and “the William Eggleston of Instagram”, take over The New Yorker Magazine’s Instagram account for a week, the Brooklyn-based street photographer was writing just “little articles” for blogs like MTV.com and The Fader. Regular paychecks went out the window as he took a chance to go full-time “looking at the world, and saying: what the hell is this”.
In March 2014, with less than $100 in his bank account and 10 grand of credit card debt, he sells his images on the social media platform that claims him major fame. On the eve of his 34th birthday, he writes:
“Hello, I just turned 34 this second. For one day only I am selling 4x6 prints of whatever you want from my Instagram archive for $150 each. I swear I will never sell anything this cheap again. If you’re interested, send a screenshot of the photo(s) of your choice to arnoldaniel@gmail.com (one d) and I will send a paypal invoice, followed by a signed print. Easy peasy. Happy my birthday. I love you”
He had made $15,000 by the day’s end.
His cheeky, candid, and convert shots of the everyday New York city life invoke emotions — raw emotions that speak to each viewer in different conditions. As Creators on YouTube puts it:
“Daniel has developed a unique perspective, capturing unsuspecting subjects photographed in a fleeting moment that reveals their awkward, authentic, and beautiful humanity.”
More of his photography can be found on WhentoSayNothing.com & an in-depth conversation into his life here.
About ARTBLOC
Opening up art investment for all, ARTBLOC enables micro-art investment by tokenizing the fractionalized ownership of masterpieces. ARTBLOCs erves as a community for sharing art world information and critiques as well as a platform for art investment. ARTBLOC aims to drive the growth of the art market in general and support the artists, ultimately bringing art to our everyday lives.
