Street photographer Daniel Arnold, who gained internet fame in the early 2010s for his candid shots of New York City life, has released a new monograph titled "You Are What You Do" that showcases a markedly different approach to his craft. Published by Loose Joints, the book reveals a more somber and introspective perspective from the Wisconsin-born artist, contrasting sharply with his previous energetic and provocative work.
Arnold's journey from writer to viral photography sensation began over a decade ago when his wry observations of city life, posted online, captured both glamorous and downtrodden subjects in what he described as "a sprawling continuum of humor, struggle and desire." Over the past 15 years, his career has expanded significantly beyond street photography, making him an in-demand fixture in the fashion industry, shooting events like the Met Gala and creating campaigns for luxury brands such as Gucci while exhibiting his work in galleries worldwide.
The new book spans the same decade as his punchy 2022 debut "Pickpocket," which was characterized by energized momentum and urban grit. However, "You Are What You Do" presents a distinctly different side of the photographer. Speaking from his New York apartment after returning from a funeral, the gravel-voiced artist explained the tonal shift in his work. "You don't have to tell anybody that it's been an insane decade of upheaval," Arnold said. "A lot changed in my way of working around COVID and the explosive moment around George Floyd's death. It felt overwhelmingly despicable, off and wrong in that moment to use Instagram or to use photography as a means of self-promotion."
This period also marked Arnold's growing discomfort with social media, leading him to share his work online far less frequently. "Instagram was incredibly world shifting," he acknowledged. "I probably wouldn't be speaking to you without it. But once it had worked for me, I immediately started pushing it away. To be very candid, I have enough followers that it would be a crazy act of self-mutilation to kill it. God knows someday I might need to press a button and talk to 400,000 people. But I think that every day that has passed, I get a little bit less comfortable with it."
When Arnold approached Loose Joints founders Sarah Chaplin Espenon and Lewis Chaplin with his work, he made clear his artistic intentions had evolved. "When I first started talking to them, I made it clear that things had changed," he explained. "I wasn't interested in doing funny Daniel. We are not doing crazy, uncanny, city surrealism. This is a different side of me through the same period of time. It reveals a more sentimental, beauty minded, grieving point of view, I think."
The resulting book, sequenced without any text or dates, drifts through a spectral mix of beauty, humor and unease. Smile-inducing scenes include a child nestled in his father's lap, a couple kissing in the spray of water from a fire hydrant, and a woman inhaling the scent of flowers. These tender moments are juxtaposed with more disquieting imagery, such as a sea of phones raised toward something unseen and a toddler clutching a sign asking "Does life have a purpose?" Interspersed throughout are Arnold's encounters with celebrity, from Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala to the late actor Angus Cloud lighting a cigarette on the street.
Some of the most affecting images balance multiple emotions simultaneously, exemplified by a photograph showing a smiling father and young son peering through the viewfinder of a gun. "I've shown that picture in public and people are always outraged," Arnold said. "The truth of that picture is, we're on vacation and my incredibly fun, great father of a brother is holding a BB gun and he's playing with his kids. There's no danger. There's no violence. But represented in that image is a truth that in every carefree, beautiful moment, there is potential for subversion and horror."
This manipulation of perception represents a central theme in Arnold's work. "That image is a useful keyhole into the larger game that I'm constantly playing," he continued. "On any given day, there's an endless opportunity to take things out of context. You just cut a rectangle out of the world and paste your own version into it." This philosophy explains why none of the images in the book are dated or titled, allowing viewers to experience the work as Arnold did. "The experience of making the work is giving myself over to the randomness of what passes in front of me," he said. "You get the work the same way that I got it, like the surprise around every corner."
Despite maintaining the same prolific shooting schedule he established when he quit writing 13 years ago—still capturing thousands of images monthly—Arnold's approach to navigating the city has fundamentally changed. His method is no longer characterized by the hungry, aggressive energy of his earlier work, but has evolved into what he describes as "an endless kind of meditation." As he puts it, "My job is to walk around alone and think. The camera goes everywhere that I go, and the work never ends. There isn't really any punctuation. But the work is slower, it's quieter, it's subtler now. I think that's the main thing: it's like a conversation between me and myself."
