About
Dan Farnum is a professor in photography whose artwork focuses on topics related to adolescence and socio-economics. These themes appear in various projects based in locations around the country, which include a long-term portrait series in Michigan’s auto-towns, black and white landscape images created in the suburban sprawl around San Francisco, images of young adults growing up near Hollywood filming sites in Los Angeles, and in the working class neighborhoods of Tulsa related to “The Outsiders.” Farnum works with a range of digital and analogue photographic equipment. He is also well versed in both the history of photography and current issues in the medium.
Awards and Honors
Dan Farnum is the recipient of several notable awards, such as Best in Show in the Midwest Contemporary exhibition from Natasha Egan and Karen Irvine at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, an award from Ann Pallesen at Photo Center Northwest in Seattle, two prizes from the Paul Sack Architectural Photography Contest at the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Juror’s Selection Award given by Christopher Rauschenberg in an exhibition at the Center for Fine Art Photography. Farnum was also selected to participate in the Tulsa Artist Fellowship (2019-2020).
Farnum’s prints were previously exhibited at galleries that include the Burrard Arts Foundation in Vancouver, Royal Albert Hall in London, Root Division in San Francisco, Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, Photo Book Melbourne, Millepiani Gallery in Rome, and at the Aperture Gallery in NYC. His photographs have also been featured in multiple solo exhibitions in venues such as the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, Newspace Center for Photography in Portland, University of Wisconsin, and at Alibi Fine Art in Chicago. Farnum’s photographs have also been featured in the Beijing based magazine called Vision, Topic Stories, Ad Busters, FotoFilmic’s JRNL series, and TIME Magazine. Farnum’s photographic project titled “Young Blood” was released as a monograph in 2019 and his recent Tulsa series called “Centennial” was published by Walls Divide Press.
Education
- MFA, San Francisco Art Institute
- BFA, University of Michigan
Research interests and areas of expertise
- Art and documentary photography
- Photoshop
- Lightroom
- Color photography
- Black and white photography
- Digital photography
- Large and medium format cameras
- Film
- Darkroom
- Inkjet printing
- High-res film scanning
- Lighting equipment
- Long-term project development
- Photo books
- Contemporary issues in photography
- History of photography
- Professional development in the arts