HAPPINESS
Daniel Dale is an artist and publisher based in Bristol. Much of his work is made on the theme of ‘happiness’. During and post lockdown Daniel created HAPPINESS’ as an online project that explores individual happiness through a publicly sourced photo collection. He invited people to upload images that represent their idea of happiness testing if happiness may have changed and if we found more importance in the smaller things during the crisis. The collection of photographs may not explicitly answer these questions but invites us to consider and re-evaluate to understand what makes us happy.
HAPPINESS
by Dan Dale
Artist Statement
‘HAPPINESS’ is an online project that explores individual happiness through a publicly sourced photography collection. As the photographs are removed of identity, and the meaning behind the selection is only known to the person submitting, we see an ambiguous, diverse, and often absurd set off images that share one thing – happiness.
Showing a single photograph, the website randomises each time it is refreshed choosing from all the images that are currently part of the project. This randomising creates a journey that will change and grow if you re-visit or continue to refresh the page. The photographs in the collection are sourced through a submission process that is open to everyone. People were invited to consider an image, or multiple images, that encapsulates their individual idea of what happiness is. Each submission is kept anonymous with no details shared via the project, allowing the freedom to interpret what happiness is.
Produced during the Covid 19 lockdown and immediately following the project considers how happiness may have changed. Have we found more importance in the smaller things in life or do we have a better understanding of what happiness is because of what we are prevented from doing? The collection of photographs may not explicitly answer these questions but invites us to consider more closely how we might see and understand what makes us happy.
About the artist
Daniel Dale is an artist and publisher currently based in Bristol, UK. He graduated with an MA in photography with the University of the West of England in 2020. Using photography and print as his chosen medium he scrutinises the everyday and questions how status changes when the everyday is photographed and viewed. This scrutiny is transferred into physical print as Daniel developed his publishing venture, ‘Nonsense Books’. All his work is fed by his fascination with philosophy and literature, often marrying the two in the study of surrealism and nonsense.
