Biography
Choose Julian for your photography needs if you want an experienced, reliable photographer who can readily pivot from the beautiful and classical to the innovative and experimental, bringing a wide creative vision to every photography job, large or small.
Julian Dahl is a passionate Australian media artist with 15 years experience producing films and photographs in the USA and internationally, now specializing in event photography, portraits and headshots.
Based on Vashon Island, a 20-minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle, Julian has thrived in the creative tranquility offered by a forested island without a single traffic light.
Soon after completing his Bachelor's degree in Australia, Julian became a self-taught experimental filmmaker using glorious Super 8 film to stretch the conventions of the medium. It was during this time that Julian also taught himself 35mm photography and was soon able to teach Darkroom Photography and Super 8 Film Production to adults in Melbourne, Australia.
Julian then traveled across Europe and Africa while teaching English as a Foreign Language, editing books and websites, and shooting a 30-minute short film in West Africa that won Best Experimental Film at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2001.
After falling in love and starting a family in Los Angeles, Julian then directed, produced and secured distribution deals for a collection of experimental Super 8 short films and an award-winning experimental urban comedy-drama feature film shot in Compton and East LA.
Over the last 10 years, Julian has pursued an educational career teaching photography and video production to teens on a Native American reservation and at arts high schools in California and Nevada.
More recently, Julian has embraced fine art conceptual photography with several group and two solo exhibitions, while also providing commercial photography services for local clients.
Photographic Philosophy
"I bend light through feeling."
I use vision machines to create original artifacts from the instants of our being. Metamorphic truth is my goal, the heart is my path, and love is my compass. I make art in the service of life.
My Favorite Places to Make Photographs
In nature, especially the gorgeous trails, forests and beaches on Vashon Island
or the large parks in Tacoma and Seattle with ponds and artfully framing foliage
or decaying industrial zones with clouds of white steam bisecting rusted metal plates
or the 1960s charm of old Tacoma with the dock and fishing pier and old pleasure boats
or open air sculpture parks facing blue skies and cityscapes
or smoky, funky bars and antique shops with alarming stuffed beasts and mysterious baubles
or in empty stadiums screaming with the violent silence of absent crowds
or shuttered factories, strewn with abandoned machinery and production reports from 1987
or neglected urban spaces covered in tags, stickers, graffiti, and dead weeds
or at an underground club in the alley under orange sodium lights dripping wet
or old missile sites, decaying mansions, and defunct prisons
or in a popup studio that I bring to your house or garage with a black background and one light casting moody shadows with smoldering power
or with a bright white background and diffused lights so you seem to be joyfully floating in the void before conception.
Awards
Honorable Mention, Documentary Category, Indie Film Gathering, 2013
Winner, Best Editing, Ann Arbor Film Festival, 2006
Winner, Best Experimental Film, South-by-Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, 2001.