Dan McInnis is a documentary photographer who uses portraiture as a primary focus. Originally from upstate New York, he received his BFA in Film, Photography and the Visual Arts at Ithaca College's Roy H. Park School of Communications. He has an MFA in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Dan has taught as a professor of both photographic practice and history at Ithaca College, The American University of Dubai, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY), School of Visual Arts (SVA), Wittenberg University, and The School of Art at Bowling Green State University. He is currently Associate Professor of Art (photography and digital design) at University of Toledo.
Dan was recently honored as a finalist in the 2021 Passepartout Photo Prize in Rome, Italy. His work was also selected for the 2021 Harper College 43rd Annual Small Works Exhibition.
His work entitled "Heidi and Lily, Ohio, 2014" was selected as a finalist and shortlisted piece for the 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. This same work was chosen for Third Prize in the 2015 Photo Review competition, juried by Lawrence Miller.
His current work focuses on elementary education and the teachers, staff and administrators whose job it is to educate K-4 students in the Toledo metro area.
Email: dmcinnis23@gmail.com
Instagram: @daniel_j_mcinnis
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/every-three-years-artists-compete-on-view-national-portrait-gallery-winners-180958490/
http://npg.si.edu/exhibition/outwin-2016-american-portraiture-today
https://npg.si.edu/blog/outwin-2016-finalist-daniel-james-mcinnis
CV
Education:
Master of Fine Arts, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA (Photography)
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY (Film, Photography and the Visual Arts)
Teaching and Administration Experience:
Associate Professor of Art (Photography and Digital Design) Department of Art, College of Arts and Letters, University of Toledo, Toledo OH
January 2024-present
Associate Professor Jesup Scott Honors College, University of Toledo, Toledo OH
June 2021-December 2023
Assistant Lecturer Jesup Scott Honors College, University of Toledo, Toledo OH
June 2018-May 2021
Interim Chair Department of Fine and Performing Arts, Owens Community College, Toledo, OH
June 2017-June 2018
Adjunct Instructor First Year Programs and Honors College, School of Art, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio
August 2016–May 2017
Adjunct Instructor Department of Fine and Performing Arts Owens Community College, Toledo, OH
August 2016–May 2017
Associate Professor of Photography (tenured) and Director of Ann Miller Gallery Wittenberg University, Springfield, OH
August 2008–June 2016 (Left this position in 2016 to move and support partner’s career while we had a baby)
Adjunct Instructor Department of Photography School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
May 2005–August 2008
Instructor John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY
January 2005–January 2006 (as Adjunct), January 2006–January 2008 (as Full–Time Substitute Line, two one-year contracts)
Adjunct Instructor Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York, NY
September 2003–June 2004
Assistant Professor of Photography American University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
August 2000–March 2003 (fixed three-year contract)
Assistant Professor of Photography Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
August 1997–June 1999 (two separate one-year contracts)
Lecturer Roy H. Park School of Communications, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
August 1995–May 1996
Recent Honors:
2021 Passepartout Photo Prize (Finalist), Il Varco (400 Artists Submitted/78 finalists)
Finalist and shortlisted for Smithsonian Institution’s 2016 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C. (2500 entries, 100 semi-finalists, 50 finalists, 7 shortlisted). Exhibition travelled to four other museums from 2017-2018 (see below under exhibitions)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.
Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA
Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TX
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC
Photo Review, 2015 International Competition, Third Prize (1,830 photographs entered, 5% chosen, five top prizes), curated by Lawrence Miller of Lawrence Miller Gallery, New York, NY
Solo Exhibitions:
“Presence”, University of Toledo, Clement Gallery, January 2016
“Battleground”, Wittenberg University, Ann Miller Gallery, November–December 2013
“Presence”, Otterbein University, Miller Gallery, October–December 2013
“Presence”, University of Urbana, September–October 2012
“Presence”, Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, OH, February–April 2011
“Balance”, McGraw-Hill Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, January–March 2010
“Balance”, Wittenberg University, August–September 2008
Group Exhibitions:
Folklores and Traditions, LoosenArt with Gallery Millepiani, Rome, Italy, November 1–9, 2021 (1397 works submitted/85 works selected)
43rd Annual Small Works Exhibition, Harper College, Palatine Illinois, Juror: Carrie Johnson, September 20–October 28, 2021 (262 artists entered/21 selected)
Shades of Grey, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon, Juror: Todd Johnson, September 2021
Travel, Auburn Art Gallery, Los Angeles California, Juror: Matt Harding, August–September 2021
Face It: Reimagining Contemporary Portraits, Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, August 31–October 6, 2016 and East Tennessee State University, Slocumb Gallery, October 8–November 22, 2016
The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2016, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, National Tour
Tacoma Art Museum, Washington February 4–May 14, 2017
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas June 8–September 10, 2017
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri October 6, 2017–January 7, 2018
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC June 1–August 26, 2018
The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2016, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., March 2016–January 2017
Portraiture and Place: Rachel Herman, Daniel McInnis and Rebecca Nolan, Ernestine M. Raclin School for the Arts, Indiana University South Bend, January 4–February 6, 2016
The Photo Review: Best of Show, curated by Lawrence Miller, Gallery 1401, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, October-December 2015
Portraiture: Expression and Gesture, (national call, juried by Karen Haas, Curator of The Lane Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston), PhotoPlace Gallery, Middlebury, VT, February–March, 2015
ImageOhio 2015 (regional juried), Fort Hayes Shot Tower gallery, Columbus, Ohio, January 2015
Variations on Likeness: Julie Jones, Glenna Jennings, Keliy Anderson-Staley and Daniel McInnis, Dayton Visual Arts Center (national juried). Exhibition to coincide with Cincinnati’s International Fotofocus, Sept. 12–Oct. 18, 2014
Distinguished Alumni Exhibition (invitational, one of six photographers selected), Ithaca College, Department of Cinema and Photography, October–December 2013, Ithaca New York
“Longing”, Dayton Society for Painters and Sculptors, first photography invitational, summer 2013
One Life International Photo Competition, sponsored by Photo District News (online), Fall 2012
Carnegie Regional Photography (regional juried) in conjunction with Fotofocus, The Carnegie, Covington, KY, September-October 2012
ArtEd (regional juried), Rosewood Gallery, Kettering, Ohio, August-September 2012
Distance: Contemporary Photography (national juried), Tejas Gallery, Dayton Ohio, August 2012
No Borders (regional juried), Dayton Visual Arts Center, Dayton, OH July, 2012
PhotoPlace Open (national juried), Middlebury, VT June 2012
Members Show (regional), Springfield Museum of Art, March 2012
ImageOhio 2011 (regional juried), Fort Hayes Shot Tower gallery, Columbus, Ohio, January 2011
Small Works (regional juried), Roy G Biv Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, December 2008
Publications:
Photo Review, February 2016
Square Space Magazine, Featured Photographer, May 2015
Saint Lucy (online consortium, by invitation), September 2013
Dodho Magazine, Featured Photographer, (by invitation), August 2013
Battleground, (self-published monograph) Apple Books, 2013
Photo Review, January 2013
One Life International Photo Competition (finalist catalog), Photo District News, December 2012
PhotoPlace Open 2012, Blurb Books
Silvershotz, International Journal of Fine Art Photography, 2010 Folio (Featured Photographer), December 2010 Issue
Lectures/Panels/Articles/Interviews:
“Susan Sontag and the New Sensibility, Science vs. Art” (Analysis of her lecture at Antioch College in 1965), “Rediscovered Radio” series on NPR/WYSO, (October 1, 2016)
“The Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition as an Antidote for Opposition to Multiculturalism”
Presented at National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, August 14, 2016
“Teaching Digital Photographic Media: Challenges and Solutions” (panel leader/coordinator) Presented at Midwest Society for Photographic Education conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2012
“Victimhood Perceived: The Use of Photography as Agit‐Prop During the Second Intifada” (lecture/paper) Presented at Midwest Society for Photographic Education, University of Western Michigan, October 1, 2010
“Dubai: A View from the Middle East” (lecture) Presented at Wittenberg University for the Springfield, Ohio Global Peace Initiative’s Speaker Series, March 2010
Courses Taught:
Photography and Design:
Introduction to Photography (analog and digital)
Advanced Photography (analog and digital)
Color Photography (C-41 and digital)
Introduction to Digital Media (Adobe Creative Cloud)
Studio Photography
Photojournalism
Fashion Photography
History of Photography
Introduction to Graphic Design
2-D/Art Methodologies and Practice
Film:
Introduction to Film Production
History of Cinema (survey)
Documentary Film (survey)
Science and Cinema
Other:
Ideas and Society (first-year honors seminar)
Visualities of the Middle East (senior seminar)
Questioning Visual Media in the 21st Century (first-year seminar)
Senior Photography Thesis
Writing for Business, Management and Public Relations
English Composition (201-level)