Ingenious Photo Project Transports Wright Brothers To The Present Day!
You can see Wright Brothers: Then and Now photographs at the Dab Art Company gallery, 334 S. Main Street, No 5001, Los Angeles, California 90013. In the 8th Annual Photo Exhibition, “People Are Starting To Notice,” February 26 – April 23, 2022.
Dan will be at the Toledo Fine Art Fair on March 12th and 13th at the Seagate Center in downtown Toledo, Ohio.
Dan has created images for this book traveling in the footsteps of the Wright Brothers to the locations where they did their flight experiments and demonstrations. He has traveled to North Carolina, Michigan, Washington, DC, New York City, France, and many Dayton, Ohio.
There are multiple print sizes available for the Wright Brothers: Then and Now series. You can purchase a matted 11” x 14” photograph up to a 24” x 36” photograph to hang on your wall.
The Wright Brothers: Then and Now posters come in three sizes, 11” x 14”, 16” x 20” and 20” x 24”. Each shows the exact location around the world where the Wrights made their historic flights.
Wright Brothers: Then and Now photography series
My Wright Brothers: Then and Now series is about the past mingling with the present. The Wright Brothers were interested in photography and even sold cameras in their bicycle shop. They used photography in their process of discovery. Through research, I found many original historic images taken by the Wright Brothers and others whose locations I could still access. To create my photographs, I began traveling to places like Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Washington, DC, Detroit, Michigan, New York City, Le Mans & Pau, France, and many locations in Dayton, Ohio. I then digitally combine my images with the historical pictures, blurring the divisions between then and now and creating a world where past events and modern-day activity blend. I include a written narrative within each photograph that gives context and life to the image and the people behind history. Dan Cleary
In the winter of 2016, I listened to the audio version of David McCullough’s book, The Wright Brothers, while working in my studio office. Afterward, it occurred to me that I had never visited Huffman Prairie even though Dayton, Ohio, is my hometown and the Wright Brothers’ home. So, on a cold and slightly snowy day in February, I took my camera and visited the site where the brothers perfected flight. Standing alone in the field that day, I felt the past and the present converging, and I could almost see and hear the Wright Brothers’ plane above me. David McCullough’s biography was so vivid that Amos Root’s story of witnessing the 1904 flyer circling Huffman Prairie popped into my head. The experience transformed me. Although I only took a few exposures that day, and I didn’t know it at the time, this vision planted within me the seeds for this series of photographs.
Dan Cleary is a certified professional photographer and artist living in Dayton, Ohio. He has operated Cleary Creative Photography for over 30 years. Dan has worked with thousands of companies and families within the Ohio region. Dan graduated from Wright State University with a bachelor’s degree in art and received a Master’s degree from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit. In 2015 the Dayton City Commission recognized Dan as a Proud Dayton Original.
