Spotlight: Daniel Goode
With an incredible understanding of simplicity and restraint, Daniel Goode’s compositions balance light, subject and colour to create interesting and elevated imagery. Conventions are often defied as still life blurs with studio or location settings, assisted by a model.
We sat down and spoke to him about how his art came to be.
What’s your story?
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Originally was introduced to photography through skateboarding with some friends who were doing it, and I just kept at it through the early / last years of high school. Post high school, I was looking for things to do because everyone had university plans that didn’t interest me, so I went to a TAFE college for 3 years to study photography. During that time I started working in e-commerce studios during the day, and studying at night and later on started to assist photographers.
Eventually things made a fairly hard pivot away from skateboarding and into a fashion / still life focus, which to me didn’t feel all too different and something that became very interesting to me. After a few years working in that space, an invitation came to join The Artist Group which naturally I was very thrilled about, and moved into focusing on a commercial / editorial career here in Sydney.
When did you know it was 'photography,' and how did you go about pursuing it?
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I really didn’t think too much about it to be honest, I knew I had a significant enough interest in the craft to at least stimulate some thought process on making it a career. But it wasn’t until I started to assist other photographers that I could see how you can make that career option a reality, it’s just an odd experience at first as it seems like there are so many closed doors, but really there are so many channels to explore in photography.
Everybody’s journey is different, and there are absolutely no rules when it comes to it. I think it’s being available / responsive to opportunities, even if it means you fail a few times and I think you need to have your skin in the game and life and breath it.
Your style is beautiful, transcendent. You bend light and shape in a magnificent way - with seriousness and play. Interestingly you create between the intersections of editorial, still life, and advertising where your images for each capture the personality and essence of that, or those featured. Is there a style of imagery you prefer or does each feed into the journey of the other and all?
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Firstly, thank you.
And secondly I hope this answers your question, but I really just try to create as much mood and feeling to the image that I can and I’d put the same thought process into whichever subject I’m shooting, could be a still life of a shoe in studio or somebody on location. To me it all feels the same, and I’d like to think that you could link those images together without much thought. There are definitely photographic context’s I prefer more than others, but I try to bring them all together with lighting and mood.
Talk us briefly through one of your most interesting projects or captures? Inspiration can come at any time and our process isn't always linear.
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Okay, so recently I worked on a project with the team at Armadillo with Film Director Glendyn Ivin and Cinematographer Sam Chiplin shooting the Armadillo product in this surreal sensory feeling environment. It was a great project to collaborate with Glendyn and Sam, and to see the space come to life through the work of the set builders.
Inspiration can come at any time, and I have large moments of time where I don’t feel inspired by anything. But then out of the blue for example, you walk into a restaurant / cafe and see the most amazing light falling onto a surface, or watch a film and be inspired by that 0.5 seconds of a frame that has such a feeling about it you can’t quite put your finger on.
I think it’s normal to feel uninspired from time to time, but I think it’s important to notice and absorb those moments of inspiration when they arrive.
Favourite piece of equipment to assist your shoots? (Gear, team, or otherwise) ?
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This is maybe an obvious one for people, or perhaps boring but I’d have to say the tripod is easily the most significant piece of kit in my workflow. There are definitely times to get off it, but there really is something about the process of working on the tripod that encourages a certain type of feeling / approach to making an image. In contrast to that I have been using my Leica to hover around the set and take more intimate off the cuff moments, and that’s another style of image I like and that camera definitely helps me achieve that.
Photographers we should know of?
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This list could be just go on and on, but here is 5 that came to mind:
Mark Steinmetz
Nigel Shafran
Rineke Dijkstra
Justine Kurland
Thomas Demand
