Daniel Adams
Image by Daniel Adams and Abinaya Dhivya
Daniel Adams is a Malaysian conceptual portrait photographer who explores and blurs the lines between gender, identity, and cultural norms. He also delves into social and political ideologies throughout his work, wanting to start discussions amongst its viewers. Along with the exploration of these subjects, Daniel also looks for unusual and unique elements to implement into his photography, aiming to recreate the surreal images in his head.
Hi Daniel! Tell us a little about yourself — when did you first become interested in photography and how did you get to where you are today?
I have a vague memory of where my interest started, but it was somewhere along my time in secondary school. My parents had gifted me a camera for my birthday and I would use it to shoot everything and anything around the house after school - using up all my free time to take photos of a toy red bus from every angle imaginable. My interest progressed and I ended up going from inanimate objects to people, to creating more concept-based images, and then to bigger projects. After university, I entered the industry in Malaysia and slowly worked my way up. Having said that, I still have a long way to go when it comes to learning, networking, and understanding different aspects of the commercial industry.
Photographer Daniel Adams
Image by Raisa NorAzzam
“I’d like for people to be taken to a different place and dream a little through my work. With projects that tell people’s stories, I’d like for the viewer to walk away with understanding more about another person’s experience in life.”
Are there particular themes you like to explore through your work?
There are! I’ve taken a slight break with regards to the projects I want to create for my personal portfolio, however I am hoping that 2024 allows me to get back into this.
With the projects I have created, I gravitate more towards exploring concepts such as gender, identity, and race - which would usually be the underlying topics of my work. A lot of the stories that are built on these topics are told by individuals who experience varying levels of discrimination and policing. The goal is to understand these topics and to work with people in the community to create projects for the people, uplifting individuals and projecting their voices and their stories.
A lot of the themes and underlying topics arrived as they are close to home - whether it be about gender or race, it is always a further study into Malaysian identity and learning about what different people go through.
Your conceptual portraits feature unique and striking props, makeup, and colors. Can you walk us through your process for creating and putting together a shoot?
It can definitely be a long process! For something a little more complex, there’s a lot more brain energy going into that. It would usually encompass the following:
Writing down the idea
Learning more about the topic through research + conversations
Breaking apart the original idea into different elements
Linking different elements to textures/patterns/objects/colours/etc to represent that in a photo
Image by Daniel Adams
In addition to your portrait work, you have an impressive commercial portfolio. How do you approach creative collaboration with your clients?
It really depends on whether the client is open to creative collaboration. You either get clients who are just looking for a photographer who can replicate the reference photos that they want OR clients who are looking for a photographer to shoot in their own style. With that being said, each client would have different levels of leeway.
I appreciate both types - one gives me creative freedom and one knows exactly what they want down to the tee. Where it becomes difficult, is when clients have a vision in their head but want me to come up with an idea to see if it matches theirs.
The connection you have with the people you photograph seems to be quite intimate. How do you go about creating a safe and comfortable environment for your subjects?
I’m constantly aware of how people might feel and am always wary of whether or not they are comfortable. The environment has to be light-hearted, with some music on — always making sure they feel comfortable, asking whether it’s okay to adjust their hair/clothes (especially if we don’t know each other). I think small things like that help to put the subject at ease and allow you to gain their trust a little bit more. I also tend to be very talkative when I’m shooting, encouraging, or praising the subject where necessary.
What is the most memorable shoot or project that you’ve worked on and what made it stand out?
I worked on a piece with a friend, Abinaya. We conceptualised, built the set, did the styling, and made the props. It was a really fun process to do something like this with a friend and bouncing our ideas off of one another. It also was surrounding a concept that wanted to shed light on injustices that were occurring. Working with someone who had such a deep understanding of the topic, as she was from the community, allowed for a lot of the smaller details of the image to shine through as well. It allowed the viewer to uncover different bits the more they looked through it.
Image by Daniel Adams and Abinaya Dhivya
Given the speed at which AI is progressing in content creation, the landscape and future of photography are shifting rapidly. What opportunities and/or and challenges do you think AI will present for photographers?
I think AI can be good. It could allow for more incredible images to be created that we might not have access to due to financial and logistical constraints.
I think the issue would arise when there becomes a lack of human interaction with one another: the raw aspect of photographing a person in front of you with their emotion and expressions and their body language. I feel like AI may take away the relatability of images when we start seeing less and less of a real person in the output.
What is your go-to gear for camera, lenses, and lighting?
Super simple:
Canon EOS R5 camera body
50mm/1.4 lens
85mm/1.2 lens
24-105mm/4 lens
Godox DP400 Studio Light or Tube Light
What would you like people to take away from your work?
With the concept pieces, I’d like for people to be taken to a different place and to dream a little. With projects that tell people’s stories, I’d like for the viewer to leave that image with understanding more about another person’s experience in life.
Image by Daniel Adams
What are you working on now and what’s up next for you?
I’m working on opening up a studio with my partner this year and hopefully finding my light/spark of creativity to finally come back to creating more art, rather than just focusing on commercial practices.
Thank you for sharing with us Daniel! To view more of Daniel’s work, visit his website and follow him on Instagram.
All images courtesy of Daniel Adams