Dana Stirling

Dana Stirling (1989) was born in Maala Adumim, Jerusalem Israel. Dana received a BA in photographic communication at Hadassah College, Jerusalem in 2013. She is currently based in NYC. She is an intern at the Hasted Kraeutler Gallery and is a Teen academy black and white TA at the ICP NYC.

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My family roots back to Europe, but I was born in Israel. I was a child on a fence; a daughter to a migrating family. The house within culturally stayed European but outside was the Israeli controversial culture. I always felt a misfit with my partial incomplete identity; torn apart between parents who have never blended in to the Middle Eastern culture I felt only half belonged too. Over the years I have heard of my parent’s memories and stories. I remember hearing of snow, youth and happiness. Stories of happier days. The stories held on to the memories of time and culture that I wasn’t a part of, and portraits of family members that always remained anonymous to me and their faces where no more distinct than any other person in generic photo album. These stories were supposed to be my heritage. As I grew up I’ve started to question photography’s function as my memory, as my family heritage. I started not only looking for my identity in the old photos but also reflect my feelings from these photos on to the world around me. I look for moments and objects were there is a tension that is created by their incomplete aesthetic. Photography allows me to look at the little and unimportant objects around me and make them a part of my history just by giving them attention. By looking at them I capture them to remember, not letting them go away, yet not trying to save them. Watching their last seconds before I leave and the moment becomes irrelevant, capturing their last breath. With my camera I grant them with eternity and in that I grant myself a memory.

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For more information, please visit her website.