Long-distance runner, voracious reader, and weird-world visionary

My name is Daniel Vu Dao, I live in San Francisco, and I graduated from The University of Texas at Austin. I like to say my whole name along with the school I graduated from because it causes a run-on sentence. I like running, reading, and seeing oddities in the banality known as existence. During the day I work as a software engineer, volunteer at a suicide hotline, and volunteer at a hospice. My different interests and hobbies inform the way I see the world. I like to work in the space of death, ambiguity, and what people would describe as ominous feelings. I find excitement in discovering meaning within the multiple fabrics of existence.

Despite not having any formal art or photography training, I’ve somehow gotten into photography. I find photography and art exciting as they help expose what we cannot articulate within. From being addicted to the iPhone panoramic feature to carrying an actual camera, I’ve managed to come a long way. That being said, I am still learning and always hope to be.

My photography is based in grounding and identity. I find that I am constantly searching for a place to land and call home. There are emotions we struggle to describe, identities which we cannot imagine, and actions we wish to take. Currently I am exploring emotions that I struggle to articulate within myself through photographs, as I find that it is a way to relate to the world around me. As much as my art is for myself, it is also for others since I hope to provide unity for that crazy place we call the universe.