Photographer Dan Winters of ‘PHOTOGRAPHER’ from National Geographic TV On The Message He Hopes Viewers Take From The Docuseries

I felt compelled to document this blue-collar world, knowing it was underrepresented. I didn’t go to exploit but to honor these people. It was important to me to capture the humanity in their environment.

I had the pleasure of interviewing photographer Dan Winters for the National Geographic TV series PHOTOGRAPHER.

From Academy and Emmy Award-winning filmmakers E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, PHOTOGRAPHER takes us on a journey with the world’s most extraordinary visual storytellers, pairing them with today’s leading documentary filmmakers for an exhilarating and dynamic international adventure. Each hour-long episode follows the story of an iconic photographer — Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen, Dan Winters, Campbell Addy, Krystle Wright, Muhammed Muheisen, and Anand Varma — while they work to make iconic images that stand the test of time. Through vérité footage of their current mission interwoven with interviews and archived footage, viewers will gain a deeper understanding of each photographer’s process, learn how they became an artist, and discover how they see and experience the world.

Dan Winters is arguably one of the most versatile, celebrated, and renowned photographers working today, widely known for his unusual and iconic portraits of celebrities, his scientific work, street photography, illustrations, and capturing the “hallowed grounds” of NASA. He is a National Geographic Explorer, and has won over one hundred national and international awards from World Press Photo, American Photography, SIPA, Communication Arts, Society of Publication Designers, LIFE Magazine and the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Magazine Photography, among others. While Dan has reached the pinnacle of photography with the help of his wife and manager Kathryn, he now feels at times he neglected his family. As we travel with Winters around the world to Kennedy Space Center, Iceland and Bangladesh, working to make iconic images and chase a childhood memory, he reflects that sometimes, the most important moments are found not halfway around the world behind a camera, but back at home.

Thank you for joining us, Dan. Can you tell our readers a little bit about your backstory?

I first became involved in photography when I was nine years old because I was in the 4-H club, and the instructor was a friend of my dad. He had a darkroom at his house, and I remember this so clearly; the darkroom had a very specific smell, very vinegary, as one of the chemicals used in the black and white process which is very unique, acidic. So, the whole house had that smell of a darkroom. He had me come in, and he showed us the process of making a print, putting it in the chemistry, watching it come up, and fixing it. Then finally turning on the lights.

I remember when he shut off the overhead lights, and just the safelight was illuminating the space. It took a while for your eyes to adjust, and then it’s just beautiful. But I really didn’t actively start to pursue photography until I was in high school. I was doing it basically because I was really interested in special effects, model building, pyrotechnics, and filmmaking. I would build these scratch-built miniature spaceships and things like that. I was really interested in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Space: 1999, UFO, and then, of course, Star Wars. So, I wanted to take pictures of my spaceships. That was kind of the impetus behind learning it a little bit better. And then, as time went on, it just became all-consuming.

What aspects of your photography career did you find most challenging to showcase in the docuseries, PHOTOGRAPHER, by Oscar winners E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin?

I think the most difficult task, as photographers, is that we have to reckon with, struggle with, and make peace with, is finding our sensibility — what do we react to in the world, what energizes us, what stimulates us, what draws us toward it. The voice ultimately is what it is, the individual voice, in any artistic medium — music, film, painting. The artist’s voice is really what’s singular; it’s not the technique, which you learn quickly and it goes away. That’s not to say that mastering technique isn’t a lifelong pursuit, but ideally, it’s like not looking at your fingers when you’re playing the guitar or piano — it’s just there, there’s no part. But the actual voice, what you’re trying to say with the medium, is the most difficult and challenging part of photography.

How did the diverse locations in the series, like Kennedy Space Center, Iceland, and Bangladesh, impact your creative process and the stories you aimed to tell?

The portion that we shot at Kennedy Space Center — I’ve been shooting there for so long, it’s like a second home. I know it like the back of my hand. Shooting that launch, something I’ve done many times, and spending a lot of time at Kennedy, brought a real level of comfort and excitement for me.

Iceland was an interesting challenge. Despite the extensive travel I’ve done in my life, I’m almost unfazed by it. It’s like, “Oh, we’re in Iceland today, cool, awesome.” It’s funny how I’ve adapted to travel. I remember friends packing for trips, meticulously planning for days, while I’m like, “The car’s picking me up in 20 minutes, I better pack.” There’s a bit of humor in that for me. Iceland was a dream destination for me. I’d always wanted to go. We went because I was doing the key art for an HBO series called True Detective. We had a few days to explore the island before the shoot, and it was absolutely spectacular. I always try to acknowledge the moment I’m in, regardless of what it is, knowing that it’s fleeting. Sometimes I even organize little group bonding exercises before shoots, like when we were shooting Obama at the White House.

As for Bangladesh, it was chaotic, to say the least. Dhaka is the most densely populated city in the world, so just getting anywhere was a challenge. The shipyards we were documenting were only a few miles away from our hotel, yet it took hours to reach them due to traffic. Despite the chaos, I took it all in stride, embracing whatever came our way. It was a mix of beauty and sadness — the children running around the shipyards, likely destined to become the workers we were photographing, reminded me of my own upbringing. My father was a welder, and I spent many weekends assisting him. So, it all felt familiar.

I felt compelled to document this blue-collar world, knowing it was underrepresented. I didn’t go to exploit but to honor these people. It was important to me to capture the humanity in their environment. One of the most satisfying moments was when we found a fine art printer in Dhaka. Despite the distance, we had prints made every night and distributed them to the people we photographed on our last day. Seeing their reactions to the physical photographs was incredibly rewarding. In a world saturated with imagery, it was powerful to see how a simple print could emotionally affect someone.

Can you share how your collaboration with your wife and manager, Kathryn, has influenced your artistic endeavors and decision-making throughout your career?

So I met Kathryn in ’91 when I was living in New York. She was working in the film industry as a post-production supervisor on a film. When I met her, she was in between projects, and I had this huge box of receipts from seven or eight jobs I hadn’t paid taxes on for several years. I remember coming home one day, and she had them all spread out, trying to make sense of it. Since that day, we’ve worked together.

In terms of our collaboration, she’s everything to me. She’s involved in every aspect of our business. Every decision, every job I ship out, her eyes are on it before it goes out. I value her feedback above all. She’s an incredible sounding board, confidant, and friend. We travel together all the time and have had countless adventures. I’d say she’s the most important part of our organization. It’s been an incredible ride with her.

Without giving away too much, can you provide a glimpse into how the personal quest of chasing a childhood memory unfolds in PHOTOGRAPHER?

It’s funny how things come together. When I was first approached about doing the series, we had a couple of phone conversations to figure out what it would be like. Then, when we met with Pagan and Jean, the producer and director, in New York, we firmed up the deal.

During one conversation, I shared a particularly salient childhood memory with them. When I was a kid, my dad took me to the beach to see a 500-foot ocean liner that had washed ashore on its side. It was called the La Jenelle. This memory had lingered with me as a kind of ghost memory, and I decided to research it. I told them how frightening it was for me because it felt like a big marine mammal that had washed ashore and died. When anything’s really out of context like that, it’s unsettling. Ship breaking and ship building had come up in conversation as topics I was interested in, so we decided to explore that further.

I did some research and talked to a Bangladeshi fixer named Riton. He helped us with on-the-ground research, and we found that the shipyard in Dhaka seemed like a place we could access. Ship breaking was off-limits to foreigners, but we were able to navigate through.

As a National Geographic Explorer, how do you approach conveying meaningful storytelling narratives in your photography?

So that’s the trick, right? Because it is a single image. I came out of photojournalism as a newspaper photographer. And when we were working on photo essays for the newspaper, you had the luxury of multiple images to tell a singular story. So you’d have succinct pieces that would hopefully communicate a larger story. The wonderful thing about NatGeo is you have that same luxury. You have a layout, you have multiple pages, and now you have the extended story, which exists on NatGeo.com. So if you shoot 20 pictures, and six of them run in the magazine, the other 14 can run on the website, which is beautiful. So that’s been a nice thing for photographers — more work can go out there.

Once you have the story identified, you realize there aren’t many stories, but rather different tools through which we can tell them. I’ve been doing this for 40 plus years. It unfolds the deeper you look, and that’s the trick. You have to really look, and the more you look, the more it’s revealed.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I believe I contribute a lot here in Austin, especially in my community. I mentor students, offer internships, and organize public exhibitions. I recently curated an exhibition featuring photographs of honeybees captured with a scanning electron microscope. We displayed large prints mounted in steel frames at a pollinator garden in town.

Education has always been my priority. I feel there’s a lack of emphasis on education in our country compared to others. So, whether it’s mentoring students, conducting workshops, or curating exhibitions to spark curiosity and consolidate information, education remains my primary focus.

How can our readers follow the docuseries PHOTOGRAPHER and learn more about your work?

The docuseries PHOTOGRAPHER will have its first couple of episodes on NatGeo TV dropping on the March 18th 2024, and mine will be on March 25th. You can follow me on Instagram @danwintersphoto and visit my website danwintersphoto.com, for more information.

The internet has become an invaluable tool for photographers. Initially, some were reluctant to embrace it, but now it’s widely recognized as a great tool, even for brainstorming with clients. Browsing through images on the website can spark ideas and streamline communication.

Thank you for sharing your insights and expertise with us, Dan.