Daryl Visscher Photography - Biography

Daryl VISSCHER

Biography

As a Canadian teenager I took many trips into British Columbia's wilderness. The experience was always a challenge to capture on film, so I decided I wanted to learn how to take a good picture.

After a brief career as a truck driver, I moved to New York City and spent my early 20s walking dogs for celebrities and assisting some great photographers. As every young New Yorker does, I learned a lot about life and business from people at the top of their game.

In 2001 I moved to Paris to learn about beauty and culture (which mostly meant drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes). After a few years my wife and I wanted to get a better understanding of the world so we moved to the Middle East to photograph the other side of the story. We based ourselves in Dubai in time to witness both the opulence of the economic boom in the Gulf region and the deepening polarization between western and Islamic societies.

I convinced my wife to become my producer and over the years we were commissioned to photograph the whole scene, from billionaire princess in Saudi Arabia to human trafficking in the Philippines and street kids in Afghanistan. As the world financial crisis set in, we were commissioned to photograph extensive industrial operations and portraits of their CEOs as multi-national companies started investing more into annual reports, and major news editorials shifted the economy into focus.

I've since developed a deep interest in photographing large scale industry and the people who develop and control the systems that support modern and developing society.

As an antidote to all that humanity and all those machines, my wife and I bought remote ranchland in Canada where we've built a log cabin and the beginnings of a completely off grid, self-sustaining homestead.