Dan Younger is a Professor of Art, founder of the studio area and former chair of the Department of Art & Design at the University of Missouri in St. Louis.
He has over 150 national and international exhibits, and his works are in numerous public collections including Museum de Stadt, in Gladbeck Germany, The Fox Talbot Museum and the National Trust, Lacock, England, The Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), the Harry Ransom Center at UT- Austin, The Saint Louis Art Museum, and Diaphne – Pole Photographique, of Montreuil, France.
Younger prides himself in taking on and transforming subject matter in photography which are mostly the province of amateurs: vacations and children. His pictures of strangers enjoying (and photographing) themselves in vacation spots, called “Travel Places” has been shown across the US and was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Sheldon Galleries in St. Louis in February 2014. William Wilson, Director of the Grand Center for the Arts in Tracy, California wrote that Younger’s images are “equally disturbing and charming”. In an essay accompanying the catalog of the 2008 Grand Center exhibit, he wrote
“Dan Younger captures the moments in between the anticipated highlights of the vacation. These are depictions of what really goes on around us in the places we gather in attempts to be entertained, rewarded, and find relaxation.”
In the catalog to the Sheldon show, Director Olivia Lals- Gonzalas wrote,
“Photographer Dan Younger has culled together photographs of tourist spots in the United States from a variety of other projects and has assembled them here for the first time. These images underscore the photographer's interest in the idiosyncrasies of human behavior and the patchwork nature of public spaces. Made with the same sense of excitement as tourist photographs, the images reveal the photographer's wonder about new places and people yet are also a canny critique of travel and tourism.” Aline Smithson of LENSCRATCH says Younger’s work proves, “that normal life is even more odd and quirky than, well, things we consider odd and quirky. Dan explores human behavior on vacation, examining how we react to and inhabit spaces that are designed for leisure.”
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His second portfolio, called “Some Kids” are photographs of children at parties and at play. This work was featured in “Photaumnales 2013” an international photo festival in the French town of Bueuvais, in September of 2013. Younger was the solo American invited to this international event. Aline Smithson of LENSCRATCH wrote,
“Never before have so many fine art and documentary photographers turned their lenses on the world within the confines of their own front door. Photographers who document family are participant observers–caught between the decision to participate in familial activities or capturing their loved ones with photographic interpretation, sometimes at their expense...”
Younger’s photographs have also been used in the sets of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser”, on ABC’s “Meet the Newlyweds” on Fox’s “I Married a Stranger” and on VH1’s “Scot Baio is 45 - And Still Single” among others. Tony Marsh, Emmy winning director of “Newlyweds” wrote that Younger’s photographs are
“...bold and evocative. They do not merely document but beckon you to wander around in the sublime space between first impression and fond memory”.