User:Lance9119/Daniel Peirce

Daniel Peirce

Daniel William Peirce (May 21, 1959) is an American photographer, author and philosopher, best known for his fine art photography representing the style and design of the motorcycle engine.

Peirce completed a decade-long portfolio of photographs titled The Up-N-Smoke Engine Project, resulting in a photography book The Fine Art of the Motorcycle Engine, studying the light, shadows and graphic nature of motorcycle engines.

Known in the industry as “Lord of Light, Master of the Pixel”, Peirce’s style emphasizes utilizing the natural occurrences of shape, shadow, and highlights found in manufactured materials and highlighted by his studio photography techniques.

Personal life

Peirce was born May 21, 1959, in Washington D.C, the third of four children of Margaret Daniels. His father Frank Peirce Sr, a career soldier in the United States Air Force, eventually led to the family’s relocation to Universal City, Texas when Peirce was four years old. Peirce began his study of photography at Samuel Clemens High School, and continued in that profession after graduation, despite the recommendation of the high school counselor that he consider plumbing. He decided to pursue photography after graduating from high school and completed the School of Modern Photography correspondence course in 1979.

While developing his personal photography skills and style, he met a University of Texas graduate, Pamela Anne Mitchell. The two were married December 6, 1980 in a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas. They have two daughters, Elizabeth (1983) and Catherine (1988).

In 1985, the family moved from Universal City to Dallas-Fort Worth. In 1992, they moved again to the Hawaiian island, Oahu where they lived for three years before returning to DFW.

Having ridden motorcycles in his teens, Peirce picked up his hobby of motorbikes again at 38 years old. He rebuilt a free 1972 Honda CL350 basket-case and started riding again. A few years later, he would buy a 1978 Honda CB750 that would become his daily rider, the Landshark.

Daniel Peirce is a current member of the Peckerhead Riding Group, a local motorcycle riding organization founded in Keller, Texas.

Peirce now lives with his wife of 30 years in Grapevine, Texas. He continues his passion of rebuilding vintage motorbikes and is currently working on a 1968 Harley Davidson Sprint.

Career

Since 1979, Daniel Peirce has professionally mastered every photographic niche. His outspoken desire to grow as an artist led him through a myriad of positions from a police forensic photographer to a wedding and portrait photographer, to photo lab management, to photography teacher. However, the majority of his career has been as a commercial photographer and has concentrated on serving the motorcycle industry for the last 16 years. Tucker Rocky and Biker’s Choice Distributing, two of the largest distributors of motorcycle parts, accessories and apparel in the nation is Peirce’s current and longest position, as head photographer, producing photography for their catalogs and magazine advertising.

Peirce later founded the company Trick Photography, in which he produces images and articles for motorcycle publications. In the last ten years his work has appeared in every major motorcycle magazine in the nation including: Cycle World, Motorcycle Classics and the Robb Report.

Up-N-Smoke project The UNS Engine Project was named after a restaurant in Keller, Texas. Peirce, a member of the Peckerhead Motorcycle Racing club, met other Peckerheads at their Friday night gatherings at the Up-N-Smoke BBQ House and Power sports Bar in Keller, Texas. Phil Dansby, the owner and fellow Peckerhead, encouraged Peirce to begin the engine project and thus the very first poster produced hangs in the restaurant.

The Engine Project began a few years ago while Peirce attended the North Texas Norton Owners Association’s annual motorcycle rally at the Lake O’ The Pines, near Jefferson, Texas. Peirce was assigned to shoot photos to use in an article for Ride Texas Magazine. The highlight of the rally is always the impressive vintage bike show. Showing primarily European motorcycles, the show boasts many bikes seen nowhere else. From that session, a double-framed collection of ten solid pictures showing motorcycle marks from Ariel, to Honda, to Triumph, to Zundapp were created, titled “Motorbikes from A to Z, Lake O’ The Pines 2001.”

It was then that Peirce began the pursuit of photographing the motorcycle engine. The UNS Engine Project led to the publishing of the completed series titled, The Fine Art of the Motorcycle Engine. The book is published from Veloce Publishing, UK. US distribution through Motorbooks International.

Past career highlights include: 1991 Louis Daguerre trophy from the Professional Photographers of America, 1995 President of the Corporate Imaging Association, 2009 chosen as official photographer for the Old Indians Never Die International Indian Motorcycle Rally in Traquair, Scotland. Additionally, prints from his UNS Engine Project series are popular and are sold to collectors all over the world. His artwork is represented through several internet art dealers and is also available through the online store of Motorcycle Classics magazine and his web site: trickphotog.com.

The images selected by the CAM for the exhibit are part of Peirce’s newest project, The Mechanistic Abstract Series. Mechanistic Abstract is a series of abstract art photography of mechanical subjects rendered in a biomechanical style.The photographs in the series highlight the biomechanical forms that we find in designed machines.

Philosophy

Over the course of his adulthood, Peirce established the philosophy of Apatheology, the art of selected caring.

Emphasizing laissez-faire attitudes with an individual’s right to determine self value, worth and priority, Apatheology differs from nihilism in that it does not prescribe the absence of passion or caring, just that it be applied deliberately and consciously.

External links

• example.com