Conceptual, Bold & Artistic Imagemaking by Daniel Forero

‘Air’.

‘Fish & Stones’.

Daniel Forero has a penchant for provoking adrenaline-rush reactions through his work. The French art director/photographer plays on confusion and suspense, placing delicate subject matters in precarious or questionable positions.

For ‘Air’, Forero positions jagged blocks of marble and concrete around balloons, compressing them to look in grave danger of being popped at any moment. It’s unclear whether the balloons really are captured moments before bursting or if there’s clever digital manipulation at play, but either way the effect is cliffhanging.

‘Acupuncture’.

‘Acupuncture.’

‘Reflections’.

‘Writer’s Block’.

In ‘Acupuncture,’ Forero punctures various types of fruit with fine pin needles. Styled atop pedestals, the colourful produce makes for bold, abstract images. However, you can’t help but draw parallels with the piercing of fruit flesh with that of your own as in acupuncture. Though a traditional natural therapy, it’s a squeamish concept for the uninitiated.

‘Light, Shadows & Colour’.

‘$5 Project’.

Though playful and nonsensical, Forero’s images are thought-provoking and oftentimes unnerving. In other work, Forero manifests sources of real-life tension into art, such as with the concept of budgeting in $5 project, using only $5 to create the entire project (as the name suggests). Using coins and notes, he creates sculptures and compositions that subvert the notion of money as a serious asset. Kind of like ‘don’t play with your food’, but with money.

“Budget is many times an issue when it comes to execute an idea, but it can also become an excuse or a limitation we put to our own creativity. For that reason I decided to make this personal project. At first I was looking for very cheap props or even stuff I’d find in the street but in the end I decided to go for a literal approach and use the actual 5 dollars as my “props”,” Forero explains.