Danny Ghitis (b. 1982) is a Brooklyn-based editorial and commercial photographer whose personal projects revolve around the relationship between memory and identity. The son of Jewish South American immigrants, he moved around a lot as a child, which helped him to develop a lifelong interest in documenting the lives of strangers and culturally ambiguous communities. With his work he attempts to pose questions, rather than answers, to challenge expectations and encourage introspection. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, and tends to spend all his money on traveling and chocolate. Clients include Adbusters, AFAR, Bon Appetit, Billboard, Bloomberg Businessweek, BUST, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education, CNN, Global Strategy Group, Gothamist, Maclean’s, The New York Times, Newsday, Rolling Stone, Stern, and TIME. Danny has been recognized by American Photography 29/30/31, Magenta’s Flash Forward, nominated for PDN’s 30, the Nikon Emerging Talent Award, the Hearst Photojournalism Championship, College Photographer of the Year, the National Press Photographers Association, University of Florida’s Scholars Program, nominated for UNICEF Photo of the Year, and the Eddie Adams Workshop.
Deep Valley, Dark Days
“Over the course of three artist residencies at The Wassaic Project, I developed this series of photographs, whose form is less important than its function: catharsis. The span of this project overlapped with the slow demise of a seven-year romance. It began with getting off at the last stop on the commuter train from Manhattan, leaving me neither here nor there. I arrived at a strip of land lost in purgatory, struggling to recover from a series of economic failures. However, the environment is not directly related to the purpose of the work. It provides fertile terrain for exploring themes that weighed heavily on my conscience: love and loss, exile and redemption, failure and success, wisdom and innocence. I selected fragments of reality to weave together a fantasy that reflected my feelings back to me. I allowed my imagination to interpret that evidence and discovered a place that negotiates with its history to understand its many potential futures.”
To view more of Danny’s work please visit his website.
Follow Danny on Instagram, @dannyghitis