GIVE US YOUR SUGGESTIONS & FEEDBACK ABOUT THE SITE
We will send you an E-mail every time there is a new article in your favorite section. Sign-Up For ALERTS.

TGP Choice

Up and Coming Photographer Dan Gruskin by Erica Wright Sixteen year old Daniel Gruskin possesses the passion, motivation, and creativity to be making waves in the photographic community for a very long time. Article rating: 9.93

Of all the photographers I've met while writing for TakeGreatPictures.com, Daniel Gruskin is the one I envy. Youth is part of it, but more specifically, it's that time of life when you discover you're passionate about something. At sixteen, Gruskin is four years into the discovery process. In 8th grade, a friend referred him to the website www.dpchallenge.com, a sort of social network for the photography set. The premise is simple: every week the website administrators throw down a photographic challenge, such as "Urban Landscapes" or "Backlighting," and dpchallenge members submit photos and vote for the best. The result is a community of more than 80,000 learning from each other. Gruskin wanted to be part of this cooperative community and talked his father (also a photographer) into buying him a Canon Powershot A80.

In many ways, such a self-motivated circle of photographers is an ideal learning environment. Half trial and error, half feedback give and take, Gruskin is participating in an M.F.A.-style workshop before his undergraduate applications have even been mailed. The pseudo-workshop offered by dpchallenge is in addition to real workshops like the one he attended last month in Maine, "Advanced Young Digital Color Photographers." This particular workshop took him out of his element and into, well, the elements. Although his nature compositions—flowers, sunsets, bodies of water—demonstrate an impressive mastery of color and angle, he admits, "I would much rather spend three hours in my laundry room setting up lights and taking still-life photos." Being able to control the lighting of a shoot makes sense for a photographer who prizes light above all else.

Gruskin makes an important distinction when he maintains, "photography is capturing a moment not in time but in light." This realization was crucial in Gruskin's development as a photographer. In his own words: "When I first started photographing, I had to search for those things that I thought would be good photos. As I grew as a photographer, I […] started seeing simply the highlights and shadows around me, and that is what made me grow as a photographer. Everything around us is made up of shadows and highlights, and thus everything can be photographed." In some ways, appreciation of light is an extension of his first photography lessons in shutter speed and aperture provided by his father. It's little wonder black and white seems to be Gruskin's forte. 

When I asked the young photographer about his favorite dpchallenge contest entry, he referred me to a black and white image of a young man blowing a bubble. While not his highest scoring entry (that honor belongs to a shot of a quarter sinking in a glass of water), "Blowing Bubbles" illustrates Gruskin's interest in contrast. While preparing for the challenge, Gruskin recalls thinking, "why not break down a silhouette to its simplest components, light and dark?" Indeed, the simplicity of the image is what caught the attention of his fellow dpchallenge members who made comments about "catching the essence of [the] subject" and called the image a "contra-silhouette."

While it makes sense for Gruskin to excel in a "Black and White" challenge, he does not shy away from less comfortable categories, entering everything from "Granular" (for which he offered up a bowl of rice) to "Architecture" (with an equally witty shot of building blocks). His playfulness should not be overrated.

In 8th grade, I wrote a short story about the thirteenth labor of Hercules. It was my shining moment of precocity and set off a chain of events that eventually lead to a career in writing. At that time, however, I was flippant about writing—stories about ballerinas, poems about Coca-Cola cans, essays about whatever we were reading in English class. While corresponding with Gruskin, I realized that somewhere along the way I'd become serious. And what I envy about Gruskin is his light-heartedness. For all his talent and quickly growing skill, he's willing to fail and therefore able to learn in great swooping leaps while many of us inch ahead, our leaping days behind us.

Gruskin is starting the college application process with a similar open-mindedness. He wants to explore his options while continuing to study photography. How refreshing it is to hear him acknowledge, "it is impossible to understand all of photography." Such an acknowledgement might be the only place to start if you want to understand anything at all. 

^ Back to top

* Your Name:
* Email address:
	(Enter the code shown)
	(Your e-mail address will not show on the site and is used so that we can contact you back if needed)
* Your Comment about this article::
	Include me in the TGP Monthly Newsletter