From Fashion Photography to Contemporary Collage: Revisiting My New York Archives

Every artwork carries a story...

Sometimes that story begins with a sketch, a photograph or a moment of inspiration. In this case, the story began nearly two decades ago in New York City.

Before becoming known as VanDahl, I spent many years working as a professional fashion photographer. During my time living in New York City in 2007, I had the opportunity to photograph emerging model Miranda Kerr as part of a fashion shoot for an Australian magazine. Like many photographers, I built an archive of images documenting a particular period of my life, a collection of visual memories that remained largely untouched as my creative focus gradually shifted toward painting.

Recently, while revisiting those archives, I found myself looking at those photographs through a different lens.

Not as a photographer.

As a painter.

The image that forms the centre of this new work immediately stood out. It represented more than a fashion photograph. It was a snapshot of a particular moment in time, New York City in the mid-2000s, a period filled with creativity, ambition, possibility and personal growth.

Rather than simply presenting the photograph, I became interested in transforming it.

The process involved cutting, layering, painting and rebuilding the image through collage and mixed-media techniques. I incorporated multiple photographs from the original shoot alongside painted elements, hand-drawn marks, found materials and references to New York itself. MetroCards, handwritten text, skyline imagery and graphic motifs became visual fragments of memory, creating a work that exists somewhere between documentation and interpretation.

What emerged was not a photograph and not a painting.

It became something entirely its own.

One of the things I find most fascinating about creative practice is that no experience is ever truly left behind. Skills developed in one discipline often reappear in another, sometimes years later. My background in photography continues to influence how I compose images, use colour, frame subjects and tell stories visually. While my medium has changed, many of the creative instincts remain the same.

This artwork represents the beginning of a new direction within my practice.

For some time I have been exploring how personal history, memory and cultural references can be integrated into contemporary art. Revisiting my photographic archives has opened up a new avenue of exploration, allowing me to bridge two significant chapters of my creative life: photographer and now painter.

What excites me most is the potential of the archive itself.

Thousands of photographs exist from my years living and working overseas. Each image contains its own story, context and emotional connection. Rather than allowing those photographs to remain static records of the past, I am interested in reimagining them through paint, collage and mixed media, transforming them into contemporary artworks that speak to both memory and reinvention.

For collectors, these works offer something particularly personal.

Unlike collages constructed from found imagery, these pieces are built from moments I personally experienced and documented. They become visual diaries of place, time and creative evolution, layered with contemporary interpretations and artistic interventions.

As this first piece hangs framed in the studio, I find myself wondering where this journey will lead to next.

Perhaps that is the most exciting part of any new body of work.

The discovery…

This artwork marks the first chapter in what may become an ongoing series exploring my New York archives and beyond. I look forward to sharing the next pieces as they emerge.

— VanDahl