Photographer since 1965. Graphic artist, digital illustrator. Composer and multi-instrumentalist. Recording and mastering technician.

Seeing and Imagining: From “What is” to “What Might Be”. Nuances of light and subtleties of weather on landscape, or accented architecture and city streets; the integration of horizontals and verticals with organic forms; the peculiar and inexplicable growth of frost on window glass, puddles and streams’ edges; the opposition of shapes between human made and nature made...these are the elements that appeal to my senses. When looking at the world in search of images and patterns of light, dark, textures and colours, I have grown into an artist who can visualize what these images will become in the digital darkroom. I often take pictures knowing how I will transform and edit them into multi-layered collages, montages, what is referred to often as multi-image photography. I go one, and sometimes many steps further, scanning and photographing my own drawings, monotype prints and 19th century engravings for integration in photographic images. Sometime, they get traced in Illustrator for added editability, sharpness of line and recolouring. Thirty years ago, I used to do photocopy art: placing plastic, crumpled cellophane and record album wrappings between my B&W photos and the photocopier, and repeating the process until the image neared abstraction. I also liked putting several slides together in my slide viewer to create images of oneiric visions. I sometime think that Photoshop was invented for me...It suits my creative mind and my way of what I call “Seeing-Imagining”, and it has become my tool of choice for illustration. Realism does not interests me per se, but acts as a starting point. I work to transform texture, light and contrast to bring out the existing almost abstract qualities of the subject. But sometime, reality is just enough, and some of my images are not subjected to any transformation, except what is normal in a digital darkroom to bring out the best nuances of a good shot. It is all a question of balance.

Seeking out the surreal, the subtle, and the unusual is what keeps my creative mind going in not too subtle surroundings. I search for balance in all my creative endeavours. I have come to realize that constant practice of the art of seeing is what helps develop what can be called a “sixth sense”: knowing when things are just right, and when to stop...or when to keep going. I do not believe that it can be taught, only the practices, to be experienced can be hinted at and encouraged by mentors and teachers. The rest is up to the practitioner. Some develop it, others never come close: the majority. I keep mine alive through aware walking meditations, mindfulness, and the search for beauty in the ten thousand things, be it in a dirty backlane or a path through the woods, a sunny warm beach or a snowstorm. My camera is always ready.

Seeking out the surreal, the subtle, and the unusual in portraits and street scenes was also carried out by the following masters of light and poetry of ordinary objects: Eugène Atget of France; Berenice Abbott from New York, the Hungarians Kertèsz and Brassaï, who worked extensively in Paris; Man Ray, who worked in France and New York; and Josef Sudek of the Czech Republic, who worked mostly in Prague from 1910 until his death in 1976. These are a few of the artists who have most inspired me as a photographer. Max Ernst has always been an inspiration through his collages.

Daniel Heïkalo