Suggestions: Danielle Yurchinkonis

This week’s suggestion article is a bit different from what I normally post.  Rather than suggesting albums for you to download, this weeks focus is on artists that you should check out.  Expect a few more suggestions articles like this one in the coming weeks (including a pretty awesome comics post).  

This week’s suggestions come from photographer Danielle Yurchinkonis.  Danielle used to be in a hardcore band when she was in high school that she probably doesn’t want me to mention on here (but they RULED).  I’d like to think that this band is what led her down the fine arts path that she now walks, but she would probably tell you otherwise.  While still in high school Danielle became heavily interested in art and photography.  These interests led her to attended MICA university in Baltimore where she graduated in 2008 with a BFA in photography.  Upon graduation Danielle was awarded the Meyer Traveling Fellowship which provided her with the necessary funds to journey to Eastern Europe for a few months and take a bunch of photographs.  She has returned state side and is currently gearing up for an exhibition at MICA’s Main Gallery in Baltimore, MD which will showcase the photographs she took while traveling.  Her work will be on display from March 23rd – April 12th.

“All of these artists have been hugely influential during my early formative years in visual creativity. Though I found myself gravitating towards photography during my college career, most of these artists were there in the beginning for me- starting with my first experiments with ‘real art’ back in high school, scribbling furiously in a little room in my parent’s basement. I was really excited when Chad asked me to compose something like this- revisiting some of these early influences made me realize just how gigantic some of these artists really became for me as a support system. I’m not going to give a huge background on each artist, rather what struck me as really engaging in their work at the time. These may not be the artists I would pick as my top 5 of all time, but they were definitely what got me started.” – Dani

James Wyeth

During my senior year of high school I began experimenting with mixed media on large rolls of brown paper. After my first self portrait on the surface, a teacher of mine told me she had a book that she wanted me to borrow. She brought in a relatively small book about Wyeth’s portraiture of the famous Russian dancer Nureyev. His looser pieces were what struck me the most. Wyeth’s care for detail and ability to render such depth with simple white paint on cardboard or dark papers is beautiful, and to me an almost ideal sketching style.

It demonstrated to me that you didn’t need high end oil paints or supplies to create something impressive or an inspiring portrait. It opened up the idea of being a part of the art world to any person that is moved or obsessed by something enough to create a response or representation of it- regardless of the constraints materials may add. 

Francis Bacon

Bacon has this really amazing sense of paint application and weight of form in his work.  Figures that seem nothing more than lumps of flesh somehow communicate very vividly in scenes of struggle, isolation, or meshed sexual acts. Portraits that have a fierce brush stroke run straight across the face somehow still bare a striking resemblance to photographs of the same individuals. 

I recently had a chance to see a retrospective of his work this past summer in London at the Tate museum. It was the first time I had ever seen any of his pieces in person and it only confirmed everything I felt about the reproductions I had been squinting at in books for years. 

Wiki HERE.

Ralph Steadman 

Everyone would pretty much like to be friends with Ralph Steadman. Stylistically, his work is a perfect concoction of wild ink splatters and tiny hand rendered detailing. I feel like his style is a cooking spice that a lot of contemporary artists like to flavor their work with as well.  He’s perhaps most famous for his friendship and collaboration with Hunter S. Thompson and his illustrations for “Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas”. 



He really opened my eyes to how powerful humor can be as a tool. When you look at his work you truly feel as if there is absolutely no topic that is safe if he felt fit to tear it open at the loins. From political commentary, fictitious character development, wine labels, or book illustration, he pretty much covers every base. He’s still making and selling prints that are regularly posted to his website at pretty reasonable prices. 



Ralph’s Website HERE.



Oliver Chanarin and Adam Broomberg

Chanarin and Broomberg are collaborative photographers who have been working together in a breeding of documentary/fine art photography for over 10 years. They’re the editors of COLORS magazine and have released several other fine publications as well. An issue titled “Violence” of COLORS magazine was the first exposure I had to them and still rests in my collection of source material next to my desk.



Its graphic images really gave me a slap in the face and jump started a hunger to want to discover the documentative power in recording those events and qualities of life that are often unphotographed. They walk a perfect line between the very considered and conceptual aspects of fine art photography while still focusing their attention to very relevant real-world issues/conflicts of today. It’s much too hard to try and explain some of the projects they’ve worked on in such a brief format, but I highly recommend anyone to check out their site or an interview with the pair. Their book “Ghetto” is particularly moving and educational. 



They really showed me the beauty in portraiture and in showing the unaltered and raw truth of a situation. They also work hard to give their subjects not only a visual representation but also a voice- and their approach never seems to lack an open mind or cast a judgmental light. 



Colors Magazine HERE.

Personal Site HERE.

Gregory Crewdson 

One of the contemporary hotshots. You may have encountered his work somewhere or another because he’s quite established. Each of his photographs is an orchestrated set of cranes and lighting equipment equal to that or more elaborate than most movie sets. I’m talking HUGE. 



The son of a psychologist, he has claimed that a lot of his work stems from the subconscious, dreams, or even snippets he heard when listening outside of the door of his father’s patient sessions. The photos themselves strike something deep and very satisfying in their sense of isolation and something of a calm but very vivid dissatisfaction or desperation. These productions and their eerie psychological narrative give each photo a much greater value than the “it’s just one click of a button- photography is a joke” argument that still seems to linger today. Seeing his work really encouraged me to begin to lend a controlling hand into the construction of my scenes and their conceptual integrity. 



Aperture Interviews HERE.

Honorable Mentions: 

Ellen Kooi

Jeff Wall

Derek Hess

William Schaff