Danishwara Nathaniel

BIO

Danishwara Nathaniel was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. He took interest in photography after graduating high-school, when he volunteered teaching basic photography to school children in the marginalized, high-land community of Indonesia’s Papua. At that moment, he learned more than he could have taught. He realized soon that the essence of learning is an endless process of expanding horizons. Photography has been a crucial tool in navigating his way through this distracting world of constant, rapid flows of ideas, information, and goods. A means to step back and see the bigger picture; a means to connect, to understand each other, beyond words. Photography allows him to enter different communities and expose himself to different subjects. Binaries between the "modern" and the "traditional", the "global" and the "local", as well as "East" and "West" are concepts and forces in friction he dealt with and grew much interest in. Dwelling in places with such tension, Dan by himself has lived in  Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, India and the Netherlands. Employing his anthropological training, he works from below, from the margins to understand the centers, and the centers the margins,  across borders. Concerned about issues of social justice and visual media, Dan would like to work in the intersection of art and anthropology, crossing disciplinary boundaries that combines theory and practice. He has an MA in Anthropology and Sociology from Graduate Institute, Geneva. He is now entering its PhD program for research in visual anthropology and visual culture with fieldwork in Eastern Indonesia. 

Dan is up for collaboration or assignment, which can be discussed before. He also sells his prints. Drop a mail, or just say hi.