Dana W. Ball
Thanks for visiting my biography page.
I am Dana W. Ball... The Art Guy. I aspire to approach photography, and life, from a creative perspective. Whether it’s black and white photography, montage photography, photography of cities, landscapes, alleys, or people, I strive to employ the creative process in my approach.
Inherent creativity
I have always been an artist. From my early days as a young boy, peering over the shoulder of my father as he painted in his art studio in Gary, Indiana to the many exhibitions where my father exhibited and sold his paintings. The creativity spark was instilled in me at a young age, being raised by an artistic parent. Every task, large or small, has the potential to utilize creativity in its implementation.
One of my memories as a teenager was photographing winter landscapes in the Indiana Dunes State Park. The photos I took were black and white images of the frozen waves, hills, and barren trees in winter landscapes that seemed frozen in time. I would hurry home and develop the images, fascinated at what appeared from my excursions.
Montage photography emerges
After I moved to Arizona in 1992, I began to photograph the amazing living desert. It was during this time that I accidently discovered my photomontage technique. I had been photographing desert landscapes and wasn’t able to decide on any single frame that could capture the essence of the subject. So I took many photographs and later sorted the images by overlapping and rearranging them into one never before seen landscape. And my love of montage photography was born.
Travel and photography
Through my love of travel, I seek to capture the natural beauty of locations I visit utilizing my montage photographic technique. I find that travel offers a unique learning experience that no institution of higher education can provide and as such gives me an opportunity to capture the essence of the location.
“You’re more creative than most photographers.”
Purchasers of my work often remark that I am able to capture landscape scenes that exist in reality, yet, are interpreted in a way that is detached from reality. I consider photography to be an art form uniquely capable of interpreting our world in a way previously unseen.