Creative History: Herne Bay photographer Dan Fontanelli
Photographer Dan Fontanelli has carved a niche documenting creative practices and process, telling the story behind the art form
Rose Whiley by Dan Fontanelli
All photographers are there to capture a moment. To tell a story through imagery. But Dan Fontanelli is looking for a different angle. He is pointing his aperture at the past while constantly thinking of the future. He wants to tell the tale of how the story we see became a story in the first place.
“One thing that used to get me going was seeing the backs of paintings, especially old paintings,” he says. “The old canvases and how the stretches were made, the marks, the signatures and the name of the artwork, the kind of behind-the-scenes stuff, you know.”
Having moved to Herne Bay from London with an eye on opening his next darkroom, Dan’s work is well known for having a unique focus - documenting creative practices, processes and purposes. Looking how and why artists and designers do what they do. Having travelled the world, both on specific commissions and nipping off to shoot creators during family holidays, Dan’s niche is sought after. At the risk of butchering a Lao Tzu proverb, the way to do is to be and, while he graduated with a degree in fine art from Kingston University, Dan quickly realised that his career path in that world would be very different.
“I was approaching it with the mindset that I was going to make something valuable in 50 or 100 years’ time”
“It was just around YBA [Young British Artists] time, it was all conceptual work, just concept, concept, concept, with no teaching about how to make anything or do anything. I wanted to learn how to produce things, so I just ended up spending most of my time in the darkroom in the photography department and really just sort of fell in love with it from there.”
It was the artists themselves, rather than the art, that became the focus of Dan’s photography.
“I was entirely uninterested in the selling, or the money, or the politics or any of that kind of thing - I just wanted to see people’s studios, get into their process and see all the things before the final thing is made.
“I was approaching it with the mindset that I was going to make something valuable in 50 or 100 years’ time.
“Creating value, really, for the artist. Something that they can look back on and remember doing. Capturing the spirit of the moment and giving it back to them.”
There is, of course, skill in not just capturing the moment but knowing that the moment needs capturing. An instinct. The historical and sometimes decades-old documentaries that we see on streaming platforms all rely on someone to have had that instinct. To pick up a camera and capture the nuts and bolts, whether that’s the late nights in the Apple Corps building for The Beatles’ Get Back, or the back of the team bus in the Manchester United-based series ’99, and archive it for another era.
“It’s always just so fascinating to watch,” says Dan. “When I started documenting stuff, I picked up a video camera around the time the street art thing exploded, so I was making lots of short films set at this gallery called Elms Lesters Painting Rooms and they were showing Futura and José Parlá and that sort of crowd and my first thought was just to speak to them and record it and stuff, because it’s a special time.”
TIPTOE AROUND THE CHAOS
Dan chooses to shoot analogue, on film, hence the need for a darkroom. And while photographers will argue about the merits for and against moving to digital, there is no doubt that shooting in analogue comes with its own pressures. His shoot with internationally-acclaimed artist Rose Whiley, who grew up in Kent and happens to live on the outskirts of Faversham, was one of those ‘now or never’ moments where capturing on film was put to the test.
“It was really special,” he recalls. “If you could imagine the perfect artist’s studio, it was hers - you know, unbridled chaos, it was like you walked into the sanctuary. And if you touched or moved anything, the whole thing would be wrecked. You tiptoe around the chaos in sort of reverence. And she’s somebody who just wants to be painting and making - everything else is an imposition. I think I shot one roll with her. She didn’t say anything and she was very, very lovely, but I knew that was enough was enough. And if you don’t get it, you don’t get it!
“Shooting film forces you to get it right. No second chances, which is good for your eye. It really keeps you tuned in. There’s no drifting off or getting distracted.”
A pick through Dan’s photos on Instagram or his website will reveal all sorts of photographic and filmed documentations. From a piece that saw behind the scenes of international denim brand Lee Cooper and its collaboration with the family-run Hewitt Denim Mills in Blackburn through to Tony Soares from Joshua Tree, California, making pottery and native art.
“That wasn’t a commission, it’s just whenever I go on holiday I always look to see who’s around. Maybe, you know, I read about somebody or saw their work in a gallery, or wherever it may be. And their work really strikes a chord with me, then yeah I just get in touch.”
While working on the hoof helps to capture authentic visuals of a subject, Dan strives to make sure that things stay candid during pre-planned commissions, too.
“I want it to be honest,” he says. “You know, true to the artists. I never want to force anybody into a house style. You always have preconceptions in your head, but more often than not they get dashed straight away. And then you’re sort of thinking on your feet. Suddenly, you know, ‘Right, this person needs to be shot this way’.
“Keeping the integrity of it, that’s what’s important to me.”
