Dan Nelken, New York, United States of America
Dan Nelken has been a professional photographer in New York City where he has run a successful Studio specializing in portraits and lifestyles for advertising, editorial and design clients for more years then he is willing to admit.
During that time he has continued working on multi-year personal projects such as portraits and lifestyles of Demolition Derby participants called “Smash’em Crash’em, documenting signs created by panhandlers and the homeless titled “Signs Of The Times,” and bathtub portraits, “Water Babies” to name a few.
His first book was, "Till the Cows Come Home: County Fair Portraits,” published by Kerhrer Verlag. The works was exhibited in Germany at the Robert Morat Galerie in Hamburg and photographs from the book were published in Foto Magazine, Photo International, American Photography Annual 25, British Journal of Photography and The Smithsonian.
Industrial Memories
This project came about because a fellow artist who used the facility to have steel pieces fabricated for him told me about this place. It was a place that I went to explore for a couple of years whenever I did not have any commercial assignments.
Founded in 1918, Jersey City Welding specializes in custom steel fabrication roll work. They have outlived their competitors, many of whom folded during sagging economic or post-modern expansion. They survive on unique, custom piece work for the architectural and steel fabrication industry.
I would come in and look and stare. Some days I could find quite a few things to photograph and other days hardly anything at all. In my second year of visiting the facility I realized that it was all about my state of mind at the moment rather then the subjects that were available to me.
One day while I was photographing a piece of machinery, one of the workers who I had known for awhile came over to me and asked, "Is this what you call art?" I was taken aback by the question and said, “Some people might consider this art.” “Do you make a living doing this?” he continued. “No, not yet.” I replied.
Dan Nelken, June 2010

Other



Collections
International Center of Photography, New York, NY
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
The Center for Photography at Woodstock, Woodstock, NY
Beth Hatefutsoth Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Books
Till the Cows Come Home: County Fair Portraits,” published by Kerhrer Verlag