Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Daniel Quat. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Daniel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I got exposed to photography when I was 8 years old. My mother was an artist and so it was a natural thing for her to get me started in photography.

My first camera, a Kodak Brownie, captured a baseball in midair at my summer camp when my counselor was hitting a ball…and soon I won a prize at an art show with my photo of a duck… Showing some promise and much interest, my mother thought I didn’t have the attention span to have formal art training (which I didn’t). So, she bought me a Yashica twin lens reflex camera and introduced me to a good friend of hers who was a professional photographer and we began shooting assignments and lessons in the darkroom. I was about 10 years old.

Later at Goddard College in Vermont, I studied the view camera and advanced my skills in the darkroom. My senior study was a trip to Mexico to photograph the people and places over a 2-month period. When I returned, I put on my first exhibition, “GRINGO!” and ran the photo department at the college. I was teaching photography classes to 150 students as both photography teachers at the school were on simultaneous sabbatical.

Post college I helped manage Apeiron workshops, a residential photography workshop center in upstate NY for several years.

This fortunately exposed me to many amazing photojournalists and fine art photographers. There I met Paul Caponigro, a landscape photographer, who, along with the teachings of Minor White, a mystical landscape photographer, taught me the power of silence and observation in photography. “Be Still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence”. Minor White. Little did I know this sentence would be seminal in my approach to photography as I grew into my 30’s and on.

When I left Apeiron I became a printing assistant to Paul Caponigro and later assisted several commercial photographers in NYC. I learned studio and location lighting, environmental portraiture, still life—food, jewelry, liquor, electronics– and interior design and architectural photography. My clients in New York City included Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and ad agencies like BBDO, Grey Advertising, and McCann World Group; I also worked for Museum Magazine and NY Magazine. I photographed annual reports for several Fortune 500 companies.

I came to Santa Fe around 2006 and a few years later opened a portrait studio in midtown Santa Fe. The business expanded to include equine photography, weddings and corporate events, and food photography. My clients included many individuals, nonprofits corporations and larger businesses. My work has appeared in New Mexico Magazine, Local Flavor, and The New Mexican, and Trend Magazine.

A personal digital photography project received two exhibitions at Meow Wolf and Studio Nia in Santa Fe—entitled: “Vulnerability, Beauty and Empowerment” This body of work still in the making, featured portraits of people in vulnerable situations being photographed while they danced, sometimes nude…The process was a healing for many people recovering from body shame, cancer, skin conditions or sexual dysphoria and dysmorphia. …discovering how beautiful they were as captured in my photos.

Daniel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

See previous answers…plus…

I spend time with new clients to get to know what makes them tick. What they are passionate about…I aim to capture their excitement about life to show the world who they are…I use music, meditation and communication to create a safe space for them to reveal themselves to me and my camera.

in 2023 I gave a Pecha Kucha lecture (a mini “Ted Talk”) at Site Santa Fe under the auspices of Creative Santa Fe, during which I discussed my 50 year career and how finding my birth mother informed my mission to help people to be seen. Here’s the link to that presentation:

https://www.pechakucha.com/presentations/from-persona-to-essence

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Restaurant project during COVID quarantine: During Covid when the state shut down my portrait business I decided to gift the restaurants a free photo shoot to help them get back on their feet. The gift was picked up by the Television media and they did a story on me…Later, some of those same restaurants contacted me with bookings to photograph them.

Here’s the link to the tv news report: https://www.krqe.com/health/coronavirus-new-mexico/photographer-helps-struggling-santa-fe-restaurants/

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

“Helping people to be seen.”

I met my birth mother 34 years ago after a 2 year search for her. And when we met she told me the story of my birth…and how she had given instructions to the nurses to not let her see me. But against her instructions they brought me in to see her and she called out, “take him away, i’m not supposed to see him!” When she shared that story with me it crystalized my mission as a portrait photographer of helping people to be seen….and through that work for me to be seen as well.

So my portrait career is motivated by that mission. Capturing the beautiful essence of my subjects.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://danielquatphoto.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/capturingessencesantafe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DanielQuatPhotography
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-quat-59811b12/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwT6_5IhfhHod83cM0mIRQA
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/daniel-quat-photography-santa-fe-5?osq=photographers&override_cta=Get+pricing
• Other: Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capturingessencesantafe Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/danielquatphoto/

Image Credits
Rulan Tangen: Choreographer Dancing Earth with Antlers Randy Miller and Susan Green (Couple dancing) Eldon Reyer and his horses Randy Crutcher with saxophone in tree 4 portraits from the Ageless Beauty series from Brookdale Senior Living. (“Older doesn’t mean you’re not still beautiful”)