Bill Daniel
Texas-reared, San Francisco exile, and confirmed tramp, Bill Daniel continues to experiment with survivalism and bricolage in his efforts to record and report on the various social margins he often finds himself in. Working without a formal art or film school education, he endeavors to make work that connects with an outsider audience. His work began in 1980 with a photo documentation of the blossoming punk rock scene in Austin, Texas. His subcultural documentary subjects have included bicycle messengers, radical environmentalists, and hobo graffiti artists. Daniel’s study and love for documentary photography and filmmaking has given him the charge to create enduring work that communicates across generations and socioeconomic boundaries. Drawing from his backgrounds in studio photography, experimental media and the construction trades, Daniel builds site-specific viewing environments as a method for deploying non-linear documentary material within an allegorical, interactive setting.
filmography
2005 Who is Bozo Texino?
2002 Seadrift Texas 1990
1998 Selective Service System Story
1994 Hokey Stoke
1991The History of Texas City
1989 The Cement City Expedition
1989 A Bad Day Cycling is Better Than a Good Day at Work
1986 Sonic Youth
Director’s statement
This spectacular travel adventure faithfully photographed in realistic black and white film at considerable risk from speeding freight trains and in secret hobo jungles in the dogged pursuit of the impossibly convoluted and heretofore untold history of the century-old folkloric practice known as hobo and railworker graffiti and chronicling the absurd quest for the true identity of railroading’s greatest artist will likely amuse and confound you in its sincere attempt to understand and preserve this mysterious artform.
Texas-reared, San Francisco exile, and confirmed tramp, Bill Daniel continues to experiment with survivalism and bricolage in his efforts to record and report on the various social margins he often finds himself in. Working without a formal art or film school education, he endeavors to make work that connects with an outsider audience. His work began in 1980 with a photo documentation of the blossoming punk rock scene in Austin, Texas. His subcultural documentary subjects have included bicycle messengers, radical environmentalists, and hobo graffiti artists. Daniel’s study and love for documentary photography and filmmaking has given him the charge to create enduring work that communicates across generations and socioeconomic boundaries. Drawing from his backgrounds in studio photography, experimental media and the construction trades, Daniel builds site-specific viewing environments as a method for deploying non-linear documentary material within an allegorical, interactive setting.
filmography
2005 Who is Bozo Texino?
2002 Seadrift Texas 1990
1998 Selective Service System Story
1994 Hokey Stoke
1991The History of Texas City
1989 The Cement City Expedition
1989 A Bad Day Cycling is Better Than a Good Day at Work
1986 Sonic Youth
Director’s statement
This spectacular travel adventure faithfully photographed in realistic black and white film at considerable risk from speeding freight trains and in secret hobo jungles in the dogged pursuit of the impossibly convoluted and heretofore untold history of the century-old folkloric practice known as hobo and railworker graffiti and chronicling the absurd quest for the true identity of railroading’s greatest artist will likely amuse and confound you in its sincere attempt to understand and preserve this mysterious artform.
