DANIEL FEATHERSTONE
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Daniel Featherstone: TEN BLOCKS
June 7 – August 28, 2021
I really like Daniel Featherstone's photographs. A lot of them stop me in my tracks, Kafka-like, with some inner ocean of shock or recognition. - Jerry Saltz
Daniel Featherstone’s street portraits ARE New York City. On every face you can see the big dreams and the struggles, the singular passions and the learned cynicism of the people who make the City their home. I could look at them all day. - Bill Shapiro, Former Editor-In-Chief, LIFE Magazine
Daniel surfaces the extraordinary characters of New York City that are most often overlooked. His rich tapestry of these subjects is a reminder of the incredible gravitational pull and embrace of individuality this city has, and is what make New York the most unique city in the world. -Jody Quon, Director of Photography, New York Magazine
(NEW YORK and Artsy.net) Garvey|Simon is pleased to present TEN BLOCKS, a collection of archival pigment prints from the NYC street photographer, Daniel Featherstone. The exhibition will be on view June 7 – August 28, 2021 on Artsy.net and by appointment.
A British transplant, Daniel Featherstone documents Manhattanites with the care and reverence of a visitor. This collection of images hails from Midtown Manhattan, more specifically, the ten-block radius surrounding Grand Central Terminal—Featherstone’s work commute. The exhibition encapsulates the array of socioeconomic backgrounds, generations, tourists and locals alike who stomp these storied sidewalks. These images exist in the same vein as Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems, fresh and devilishly simple portrayals of New York’s maelstrom. Once a contemporary of Bill Cunningham, Featherstone is attracted to speculative glances, carefully curated styles, and attitudes that elevate his subjects from passersby to icons. Whether members of New York’s aristocracy, self-appointed royals, or the downtrodden and struggling, Featherstone’s serendipitous narratives celebrate New Yorkers in all their diverse forms.
Featherstone’s experience as a graffiti artist and graphic designer heavily influence his sense of composition. Struck by audacious punches of color, and bold, almost impenetrable lines, Featherstone’s images are confrontational in their compressed two-dimensionality. There is an element of danger implicit in Featherstone’s photographs – perhaps a holdover from his covert graffiti operations – a stilled moment in which his subjects either acquiesce, remain oblivious, or lunge in attack. Featherstone recalls, I remember one gentleman reacted very adversely after I took a shot of his wife 20 years his junior. He started screaming ‘Poliiiice’ at the top of his lungs. It shook me up for a while. I guess that is part of being a street photographer and you just have to accept that sometimes you have to be prepared for anything.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Daniel Featherstone was born in Poole, England in 1970, where he began his artistic career as a graffiti artist. Inspired by the emergence of Hip Hop culture, Featherstone found joy and rebellion in painting. He emigrated to New York in the early 90s to pursue graphic design, and has since served as the Art Director at Polo Ralph Lauren and the Director of Men’s and Women’s Graphics at Nautica. Featherstone’s early photography practice was fostered by the legendary Bill Cunningham, capturing icons of midtown Manhattan. His street photography has been featured in New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Town & Country, Il Fotografo, and American Photography magazine. He has received recognition from Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic, Jerry Saltz and former Editor-in-Chief of LIFE Magazine, Bill Shapiro, He is also the recipient of the 2020 Golden Cube Award. Daniel Featherstone lives and works in New York City.
