In my "Indifferent West" project, I have been drawn to exploring how desert and water, environmental attitudes, perceptions, and values coexisted within the contemporary American Western landscape. The American Western space is a mythic, ever-changing American frontier; bringing the added concept of emptiness and water moves away from dualistic thinking in Western philosophical traditions. Emptiness plays an integral part as a formal aspect – but these spaces are never lifeless. 'Emptiness does not equate with nothingness, but rather with something and nothing simultaneously. Through memory, metaphor, and the imagined locations of the American West. I investigate landscapes and their locations from a particular point of view, where landscape involves all its topographical features and constructs cultural documentation of the new Western landscape. The photographs display the fragility and conceptual diversity of the modern Western American landscape.

In the "Indifferent West" project, I aim to explore the coexistence of desert space and water and environmental attitudes, perceptions, and values within the contemporary American Western landscape. The landscape, once considered idyllic, has now become an ambiguous notion of self-reference. Through my photographs, I document the evidence of human activity on the desert landscape, from the literal to the geological. As a tourist and silent observer, I am keenly interested in the uniqueness of the ever-changing natural space. I look for visual shifts in cultural, political, and social understandings of the American natural space, observing where the desert converges with aesthetically and politically related spaces. Through this exploration, I aim to challenge traditional and clichéd landscape ideas, our place within it, and our collective roles and responsibilities in shaping it.

Daniel Mirer was born in Brooklyn, New York, and currently resides in the Bay Area in Northern California, where he works as a photographer and educator. Mirer has three decades of experience working in art, documentary, and commercial modes of photography. Art, wit, and critical vision characterize his work. His images often capture a critical tension between the pathos and beauty of the subject matter.

Daniel Mirer is a California-based photographer whose work is included in numerous museum and institution collections. He has presented at conferences such as the Northeast Regional Conference, The Society for Photographic Education, Ubiquity vs. the Sublime works from Thingstätten in Deutschland Photography Installation Presentation. Mirer is a recipient of the New York State Foundation for the Arts Fellowship for photography and the Dana Artist Fellowship for continuing education. Daniel is a fellow of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program and the Bronx Museum of the Arts Artists in the Marketplace. Daniel Mirer is currently represented by ElliottGallery, in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

For more information:
Visit: www.danielmirer.com/
Read the interview with Daniel Mirer