Buffalo Rising Online

Apr 23rd, 11:48am By BRO Reader Submission

By Melanie Majewski

“Photography found me,” Errol Daniels says of his passion. He has a way of telling a story through the lens of a camera, and capturing the humility of the modern world.

With the ability to capture his subjects’ emotions, he exposes their lives with utmost care and dignity. He has a passion to photograph subjects who are challenged by disadvantages, and has a curiosity for people and their lives. Daniels is a social documentary photographer located in Buffalo, NY, and has a way of telling a story without words.

His career in photography began in the 1960’s when he lived in Chicago. He helped in the promotion of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Civil Rights Movement. He knew he had to use the medium of the camera to photograph events within the ambitious civil rights campaign. He likes to think his work doesn’t exploit people, but rather brings out their good qualities.

A journey for Daniels, his persistence and courage have led him to several destinations around the world. In December of 2005, Daniels traveled to Sinaloa, Mexico to photograph the site of the PROJIMO Project. This is a community-based rehabilitation and education center run by and for people with disabilities. One thing that intrigued Daniels was that the workers provided prosthetics. “It was one of its kind” he says.

Traveling to Cuba has made Daniels become accustomed to the nation – between 2000 and 2004 he made 15 trips. These trips were sponsored by B’nai B’rith in order to complete a project that led to the publishing of his book, Cuba: A Jewish Journey.

Before leaving for his expeditions, Daniels would call his friends and tell them he was coming. They would set him up with a hotel where he would spend $20 a night for 2 to 3 weeks at a time. After a while, people got to know him. He says you don’t get a feel for a culture being a tourist on a bus, but rather living with the culture and interacting with them.

One of his personal projects in Cuba was composing his book, Nani. He describes this as “probably one of the best experiences of my life.” Nani was 9-years-old when Daniels photographed her and captured her life and enthusiasm. She suffers from spina bifida, but Daniels says that doesn’t stop her from glowing with happiness. He speaks with praise and delight when talking of her. He kept in contact with the family until 2005, and has a sense of sorrow in having let the communication lag.

One photographer that Daniels studied with and looks up to as a mentor is Stephen Shames. They met when Daniels took one of Shames’ workshops in Maine. Daniels is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The Stephen Shames Foundation. Working in this foundation has enabled Daniels to help reach unfortunate kids in Uganda and assist them to attend school, and become Ugandan leaders.

Shames invited Daniels to visit Uganda in 2006, wanting him to see the success of the foundation first-hand. Daniels got to see the foundation's influence on the children and families affected by the 21-year-old war in Northern Uganda.

His return to Uganda in 2007 and 2008 resulted in Daniels’ latest exhibit, which opened on April 6th at the Olean Public Library Gallery. It consists of 15 large portraits of teenagers displaced by war. These images include images of orphans, former child-soldiers and former sex slaves. The exhibit closes on May 3rd, and a Buffalo venue will be announced soon.

With a love of photographing people with disabilities and disadvantages, Daniels is involved with the Roswell Park Cancer Institute. His photographs of patients are used in their annual alliance reports. The last subject he photographed had esophageal cancer and was a veterinarian. He spent a day photographing him and his horse and got a sense of connection. "Roswell is a great organization to work for and the best to go to for cancer treatment," Daniels said.

On the other hand, Daniels loves to “capture moments” for weddings. He says wedding days are stories filled with happiness, and that the candid images that come of them are priceless. He is currently working on photo albums for several brides.

His work has been an inspiration to many, including Buffalo State College dance professor Joy Guarino. Guarino has worked closely with Daniels and has choreographed a dance piece that is to be showcased in Buffalo State’s annual spring dance concert, Illumination, April 24-27, in which Daniels’ photographs will appear on the backdrop throughout Guarino’s piece – performed by 10 dancers. The feeling of strength, weakness, sadness, happiness, power, pain and suffrage is expressed through the modern dance choreography.

Errol Daniels is a soulful artist, and though photography found him, he is the one who developed the fervor and inquisitiveness for discovering the world. His photographs portray his love of the expression of the emotions, cultures, traditions, and abilities of his subjects’ lives.

He gets to an audience through the camera, the way a dancer gets to an audience through dance. The marriage of the two is sure to be a full experience.

BSC Campus
Warren Enters Theater, Upton Hall
Elmwood Avenue
April 24-26, 8PM
April 27, 2PM
$10 students and seniors, $15 public
$5 BSC/ID
716.878.3005 http://www.buffalostate.edu/theater