Danny Johananoff
-
→ Art Collector’s Choice Japanese And English Edition
→ House & Garden, United Kingdom - October 2020
→ ART UNIVERSAL - The Great Encyclopedia Of International Art
→ ART UNIVERSAL - In Company With Monet
→ ART UNIVERSAL - And Van Gogh
→ ART UNIVERSAL ENCYCLOPEDIA - 'Maiko In Gion', 'Return'
→ ART UNIVERSAL ENCYCLOPEDIA - 'The Green Grocer', 'Shadow & Limelight'
→https://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/home-2/danny-johananoff?rq=danny%20johananof
-
2025
→ July 14 - July 20, 2025 - Shibuya Station - Tokyo, Japan
→ March 1 - March 31 - Contemporary Art Station - Madrid, Spain
2023
→ February 1 - February 28 - Contemporary Art Station - Madrid, Spain
→ July 23 - July 16 - Hamptons Fine Art Fair - New York, USA
2022
→ June 3 - June 25 - Agora Gallery - NYC, New York, USA
2021
→ April 23 - April 24 - Art Expo - NYC, New York, USA
→ May 15 - May 28 - Hong Kong Central Station - China
→ May 28 - May 30 - Shibuya Art Expo - Tokyo
2020
→ July - August - Agora Gallery - NYC, New York, USA
→ September - Shibuya Station - Tokyo, Japan
→ November - Shanghai International Art Fair - China
2019
→ Art Expo - NYC, New York, USA
→ Moving Ideas - Rossocinabro Gallery - Rome, Italy
→ Imaginibus - Basilica Di Sant' Ambrogino - Milan, Italy
→ Jelmoni Studio Gallery - Piacenza, Italy
→ Red Dot Gallery - Miami, Florida, USA
2018
→ Luminous - Agora Gallery - NYC, New York, USA
→ Spectrum - Miami, Florida, USA
-
→ Future of Art Global Masterpiece Award - 2024
→ Collector's Art Prize Award - 2024
→ World Photo Annual by reFocus Awards - 2025
-
I am a self-taught photographer, presently living in New York. At the age of 11, I was stretching up to reach while helping my father with trays in the dark room. I have carried a camera with me ever since my first photo won third prize in a magazine, and my photography today is the result of many decades of travel and shutter clicks.
In recent years I have become passionate about a technique which has evolved towards what I call “painting” with the lens of my camera, using slow shutter speed. When I see beautiful movement and colors, I capture it in a personal way, keeping the movement in the one frame and letting the colors brush along. I don’t actually freeze the moment, but rather let it move for a while to capture the beauty of dynamics and color. This unique and blurred photography is a style through which I feel clearly identified, and prefer the images emerge from the camera almost untouched, minimizing post editing.
I am very inspired by what I see and experience. The constant search for harmony, in music and images, is the key that helps me spot those fascinating moments and frames. Since a major part of my photographs is blurred, it leaves space for interpretation and viewers imagination.
When I see an interesting face for a portrait, I am attracted to capture it. My images can bring up different emotions in different people, and my goal is for the viewer to interpret the image and connect to it in a personal way. In portraits, this happens through compassion to the photographed subject.
I move from very sharp and clear portraits and macro photography into hardly identified faces and figures. All my photography is done on original location as opposed to studio work. Being there, where things are happening, is a thrill by itself.
I begin each photo expedition with no expectations whatsoever on what I may find...thus opening myself up to receive any scene that transmits emotion. I do believe art is always out there, waiting...and seek to capture it through the lens, telling a story in a compelling and emotional way which connects to the viewer. It is this feeling and point of view I wish to bring to you here with my work. All my work is printed in Germany to the highest archival standards.
I know a work is finished when I feel it physically - an intuitive certainty, like placing a final piece of a puzzle and sensing that it belongs. This instinctive process guides my practice and shapes the way I engage with the world through the camera.
My vision has been profoundly informed by travel, particularly journeys that place contrasting landscapes, cultures, and conditions side by side. These experiences have transformed the way I perceive reality, pushing my work toward abstraction and allowing me to recognize beauty in places marked by conflict, remoteness, or cultural dissonance. Whether in the war-scarred Middle East or regions largely untouched by modernity, I seek moments that transcend circumstance.
Photography has led me into vastly different worlds—from the intimate scale of macro exploration in the insect realm to expansive cultural encounters across West India, Cuba, and beyond. Among these, Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia left a particularly strong impression: its cultural distance and visual intensity offered a deeply rewarding photographic experience.
An expedition to Oaxaca during Día de los Muertos was equally formative. I was drawn to the Mexican relationship with death—its openness, ritual, and paradoxical celebration—so distinct from Western attitudes. Encounters such as these, along with subsequent travels in Japan and Central Asia, continue to inform my work.
Wherever I am—abroad or at home in New York—I remain open to what presents itself. My practice is driven by attention, intuition, and a willingness to follow what quietly insists on being seen.
