The book\u2019s cover recalls the all-seeing eyes of the faded billboard in The Great Gatsby, depicting a pair of bespectacled eyes that passively preside over the human dramas that unfold. Inside, we encounter affectionate moments on subway cars, someone giving the finger to a helicopter from a balcony, a nomadic newspaper in the wind, a boy planking on the beach by the boardwalk, glittering boots on the go at night, Grace Coddington with her full face in a bouquet, and many, many moments around the intimacy of sharing a cigarette (including the late actor and Euphoria<\/a> star Angus Cloud).<\/p>\n Arnold is staunchly all about process over result, or as he puts it: \u201cI function as an addict, and what I\u2019m addicted to is making more pictures.\u201d Funny and self-deprecating, he chatted to Dazed via Zoom from his New York apartment, located adjacent to an above-ground subway. We discussed his ambivalence about photography exhibitions, outmanoeuvring his Midwestern sheepishness, and why he\u2019ll never be lukewarm about New York City.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with the cover. How did that come to be representative of this particular body of work?<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: The photo book has become so inflated and glorified and oversaturated, and I think with that comes a lot of artificially imposed gravity and seriousness. And although there is gravity in my trudge through the world, a lot of it is flippant and very casual and kind of fun. I have probably ten different versions of that picture from different days, because there are things I snag on; things you can revisit and let the world do its chaos around you and see how it changes. I have such a disordered relationship with intention because of the nature of how I work. Coming up with some clever bow to put on the book was very uncomfortable for me. The title, You Are What You Do, is taken from one of the pictures. I think it communicates this transcendent tone, this bottom line.\u00a0<\/p>\n I like the expression you just used, that you \u201csnag on\u201d things. Just by their sheer repetition as subjects, smoking, kissing, and children\u2019s play are things that you seemed to \u201csnag on\u201d. Could you expand on these visual fixations?\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: As much as you would expect me to have the inside track on that, I know what I \u201csnag on\u201d by looking at my pictures [afterwards]. Some things are just like snap storytelling, just very useful plot devices. Any kind of demonstration of internal dynamics is a shortcut. If you get that, maybe there\u2019s something else that you didn\u2019t even pick up on at first. It\u2019s like this prayer, this fingers crossed: I know something is happening here\u2026 What if there\u2019s something in whatever I can capture without interrupting, which could lead to another story? It\u2019s easy to have those automatic triggers. But I have such a gleeful spirit of \u2018fuck you\u2019 built into me that the \u2018fuck you\u2019 even applies to me \u2013 I\u2019m going to go way against my own expectations of myself.<\/p>\n How do you outsmart your own expectations of yourself?!<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: I think mostly by accident. A lot of it happens at home. Outside work contributes to the public story of me. Then there\u2019s the camera in intimate places in my life, be it Milwaukee with my siblings, who have had my camera pointed at them for 20 years and it\u2019s totally invisible, or in the apartment with my girlfriend, where we\u2019re so unguarded and so silly and so vulgar. That ends up being more of this evolutionary space where things get cooked in a different way.<\/p>\n I\u2019m curious about your methodology of quite literally shooting from the hip. When did you decide to adopt that stance and why did it stick?<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: I think that is one personality\u2019s response to the problem of taking pictures in public. There are exceptions, but generally, a picture of somebody having their picture taken is not as interesting as the world uninterrupted. It started not as a choice, but just an adaptation to the fact that I wanted to catch things as they were. I also have this ever-blossoming Midwestern thing where the idea of imposing is so uncomfortable for me, l can be paralysed by it, so it\u2019s a workaround for that. I don\u2019t want to be a pain, and I also want to catch things as they are. It\u2019s more about just taking my quick stab, the possibility of a surprise, and then moving on to the next thing.<\/p>\n Generally, a picture of somebody having their picture taken is not as interesting as the world uninterrupted \u2013 Daniel Arnold<\/p>\n Whatever perspective you\u2019re bringing, celebrities have their own cultural legibility. When photographing famous people, how does their public status complicate things?<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: I am not immune to the pressure of celebrity. When I have that kind of access, it telegraphs this sort of emergency level of opportunity, which really messes with my whole ecosystem. I don\u2019t want to think that way; I want to be passive and observant, and that\u2019s hard for me in the presence of big star power. But also, it really boils down to a great universal storytelling opportunity, where \u2013 just by having some known entity in the picture \u2013 it changes the gravity. Little things become more meaningful, more powerful: context gets really caffeinated and turned up. There\u2019s a challenge to it.<\/p>\n [I have] endless sympathy for the celebrity, whether they meant to get there or not. People are constantly trying to take something from them, or to cast them in a certain light or impose their own angle. They\u2019re very, very guarded and protective of their true secret world \u2013 as they should be. So a romance can be necessary, especially one-on-one, to make them forget what they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s all just an exaggeration of the same language as everything else that I do; it\u2019s just a really juicy player to put on the stage.<\/p>\n You’ve been photographing in New York City for a long time. There\u2019s so much lamenting about how it\u2019s watered down and overpriced, a husk of itself, yet it\u2019s still an urban nexus and gravitational centre for many millions of people. Being in the streets all the time, you\u2019re in the thick of it. I\u2019d love your opinion on how to situate it.<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: I feel like this is a city where everything is true. Yes, it\u2019s a husk of itself. Yes, it\u2019s an urban nexus. Everybody\u2019s here. No matter when you show up, it is always regarded as a husk of itself. That was true 23 years ago when I got here, and it\u2019s still true now. I don\u2019t think that it matters at all. We are in a particularly unattractive cultural moment in a lot of ways and I do think that a New York without cell phones would be much more engaged. But it is just as sick as it\u2019s ever been. People come to New York for a fantasy, and they really do invent the world.<\/p>\n I feel like this is a city where everything is true. Yes, it\u2019s a husk of itself… No matter when you show up, it is always regarded as a husk of itself. That was true 23 years ago when I got here, and it\u2019s still true now…. But it is just as sick as it\u2019s ever been. People come to New York for a fantasy, and they really do invent the world \u2013 Daniel Arnold<\/p>\n Somehow, life also feels very real here because we\u2019re stacked on top of each other, and there\u2019s not enough room, and everything is way too expensive, and very few people are tolerable at the end of the day. Despite the fact that everyone\u2019s living a dream, good or bad, there\u2019s a forced pragmatism. You see every kind of person every day. You engage with every level of comfort and interest. I have moments of unbearable frustration \u2013 but I\u2019m not bored. I\u2019m not over it. I am in a healthy relationship \u2013 healthy in that it\u2019s alive. It always feels like we\u2019re building to some terrible crescendo, and who knows what it\u2019s going to be. <\/p>\n The constant is the change. You look away from whatever block for six months, and you come back and everything\u2019s different. The backdrops of all your memories are gone. It\u2019s a very juicy world for a photographer, because I\u2019ve got the proof. [New York] demands obsession. But if I have the time and the energy, there\u2019s nothing I prefer than slowly walking from Chinatown to Central Park and back. It\u2019s the best way to spend the day.<\/p>\n In terms of engaging with visual culture, how do you refine your eye? Do you go to art or photo shows?<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: I really want to like photography shows, but I feel it\u2019s so anti-climactic, and maybe that\u2019s the perspective of somebody who is so addicted to the process that the results are kind of taken or left. Like, nothing really lives up to making the work. In earlier days, when I had a more unstable identity in that world, I found consumption much more rewarding and useful, because I still felt I needed to compare myself to see where I fit in, and it was a thrill to find people who are really good.<\/p>\n I remember going to see Alex Soth<\/a>\u2019s Songbook<\/a> show. I had dreams about it, and I think that was more a function of my perception of myself, but it\u2019s great work too. I saw Wolfgang Tillmans<\/a>\u2019 MoMA show, and I really liked the experience, like I was walking around in his unconscious mind. That was inspiring to me. But my energy right now is best spent working. I still feel like I\u2019m at the start of things. I still feel like I\u2019m new. I still feel like a beginner. Working cultivates that feeling; you still have that thrill.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was looking at the acknowledgements in the back of the book. I love that you cited Peter Hujar and Candy Darling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Daniel Arnold: That acknowledgement section is very practical. Peter Hujar<\/a> gets a nod because there is that photo of my girlfriend in the hospital bed, where I was like, God, you look just like that picture of Candy Darling. There\u2019s no abstract hat-tipping \u2013 those people are directly responsible in some way for the pictures in the book. There are people who gave me access to a certain room. There are people who are in the pictures. There\u2019s my family.<\/p>\n I guess influence has always been a funny one to try to wade through. If anything, I feel like I\u2019m more influenced by the way that people function in the world than by what they make. I don\u2019t mean to deny influence; I obviously didn\u2019t just appear out of nowhere, fully formed. I feel like most knowledge has been retroactive. I had a very rudimentary start: I had seen three of the most famous Winogrand photos, and a little Diane Arbus and Helen Levitt, maybe. That was as far as it went. It\u2019s been wonderful to stumble into this place so ignorantly, because there\u2019s so much to find.<\/p>\n You Are What You Do by Daniel Arnold is published by Loose Joints and is available here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>
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\u00a9 Daniel Arnold 2025 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n<\/a>
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\u00a9 Daniel Arnold 2025 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n<\/a>
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\u00a9 Daniel Arnold 2025 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n<\/a>
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\u00a9 Daniel Arnold 2025 courtesy Loose Joints<\/p>\n