Photo Gallery
Dan Burkholder, Photographer
Dan Burkholder was one of the first photographic artists to embrace digital technology in the early 1990’s. True to his love of the traditional photograph, Dan uses digital technology to build images that still look and feel like real photographs, not like something from a graphic designer’s portfolio. Melding his unique vision with mastery of both the wet and digital darkrooms, his platinum prints are now included in many museum and private collections.
Originating the digital-negative process in 1992, Burkholder has helped open doors for all black and white photographers interested in moving into the new electronic technologies. His award-winning book, Making Digital Negatives for Contact Printing, is regarded as the most authoritative work in the field.
Dan has taught classes and workshops at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the lnternational Center of Photography in New York, the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and others. Active with the Texas Photographic Society for many years, he is currently serving on the Advisory Board for this organization.
Dan Burkholder was born in Hagerstown, Maryland, an agri-industrial community in the Appalachian Mountains. He attended Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, where he received his BA and Masters Degrees in Photography.
Dan lives in Palenville, New York, with his wife, Jill Skupin Burkholder, and their six cats.
Besides photography, Dan enjoys spending time with Jill, motorcyling, and exploring their new home in the Hudson River Valley. Dan remains hopeful that a different political climate (one not dominated by greed monsters and religious zealots) will return America to her rightful place as a nation of justice and generosity.
Photo by O. Rufus Lovett
List of Galleries that Carry Dan's Prints
For a complete list of galleries with contact information, click on the underlined text to the left.

My approach to artwork.

The art world is fraught with contradictions. How does one provide images to people who aren’t wealthy, yet provide some assurance that the prints will continue to appreciate as collectable artwork?
I staircase my print prices. That is, prints that are low in number are more affordable. This provides new collectors—and those with wallets unlike Bill Gates’—with an avenue to purchase prints at an affordable price. As a print grows in popularity (and its number climbs) the price increases. This way, if you want a popular image that has sold well over the years, I will get more money for traipsing into the darkroom to reprint the image when I might prefer to be working on more current projects.
This progressive pricing provides a kind of self-limiting feature to the print. At some point, the image becomes so expensive that few buyers will be willing to make the investment.
In the following section, I explain why I don’t formally limit my editions.

My approach to limited editions.

Let’s acknowledge one ugly truth right from the beginning: editioning has nothing to do with the photographic process. The negative doesn’t "wear-out" as does a lithographer’s stone. The whole concept is a marketing ploy designed to assuage the worried collector that the market will not be flooded with a particular image. This isn't an empty concern, especially since photography is moving away from the handmade photograph and into the realm of easily reproduced inkjet prints.
Also, this limited-edition concept appeals to gallery salespeople who are uninterested in educating collectors as to how —and why—photography differs from other works-on-paper media.

That having been said, I am knuckling under to gallery pressure by limiting all of my archival pigmented ink prints to editions of 20 each in two print sizes.

Other Things of Interest...
• Hear me talk about how and why I practice photography http://www.bradley.edu/exhibit96/noframes/space/artists/burkholder.html. This sound bite was recorded way back in the early 1990's. Needless to say, in the years since I’ve become wiser and much more articulate.
• See where I fall on the political spectrum. The red dot on the chart shows my personal results with the World's Smallest Political Quiz. Simply put, I am not a “compassionate conservative.” Nor am I one of the notorious Evil Doers. I am, however, very alarmed at the direction our country is headed.
• If you would like to link to my site, you can use one of the Banners that I've prepared for you! Please let me know of your links so I can return the favor.
Dan's Knee Surgery Movie If you are so inclinded, watch a small Quicktime movie of Dan's 2004 knee surgery by clicking on the image on the left. The file is about 750kb so if you are using a slow internet connection, it may take a while to load. Enjoy.
All Images and Web Site Contents © 2007 by Dan Burkholder
All Rights Reserved.