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Legendary Music Producer Daniel Lanois Unveils His Photography at Solstice Gallery
Daniel Lanois’ digital art from left to right: “Crossing,” “Carolina” and “Sudden.” (Courtesy of Daniel Lanois; middle image from a still by Marthe Vannebo)When Solstice Gallery was looking for an artist to kick off the first show of the fall season, one that would play into the theme of blending art and music, gallery director Julie Greene knew just the person to call — longtime friend and legendary producer and musician Daniel Lanois.
That’s because the producer, well known for his work with U2, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Peter Gabriel and others, had another side to his creativity that few people knew about.
“This is really the first big U.S. debut of his visual art, which I think is really exciting, because one of our missions is to show that artists aren’t just one-trick ponies,” Greene says about Lanois’ abstract photography projects that he produces on his phone. “I love to inspire people to think outside the box.”
“It’s convenient to expect the same thing from an artist and that’s fine. But I think it holds true with artists that their energy bleeds into other formats and territories,” says Lanois, who explains that he has been taking photos since he was a kid but the iPhone offered a new way to produce, filter and collage images together. “I’ve always been visually driven. It’s just the way I work in the studio.”
As for Solstice, the trick was to take these phone-size images and make them shine in the gallery. They did that by using their framing expertise to set the images (sometimes in diptychs or large-scale triptychs) off in fields of black to create a floating effect. The images, which are for sale as signed pieces through November 30, are even more magical because they are paired with a two-hour sound track of unreleased music that Lanois put together specifically for the show.
Lanois knows what it’s like to help other creative people realize their potential. “Lucky for me I got a chance to work with some really great artists. And I was able to slip into their thing and ride away with them for a while,” he says about his production work. “My job at that point was to make sure that they flourished as much as possible and for me to maybe see something in them that hadn’t come out yet.”
Lanois is treating this show like any other artistic challenge and opportunity. “I had a conversation with a friend last night. I said, ‘Why do we do what we do? We could just sit on the back porch and play a little guitar and not be worried about too much,’ ” he says. “We do what we do because we have received the gift and we have a responsibility to the gift, which is to make something significant and beautiful with it.”
