Photographer featured on National Geographic tells KXAN about life, 40+ year career

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Austin-based photographer Dan Winters will be featured on the National Geographic series Photographer on Monday, March 18.

The episode premiered at South by Southwest on Monday, March 11, and Winters joined KXAN News at 4 p.m. on Tuesday to talk about it.

Jennifer Sanders: National Geographic debuted their new docuseries “Photographer” at this year’s South by Southwest. It premieres on March 18 on Nat Geo, and the series flips the lens on some of the world’s most extraordinary visual storytellers. One of them is based right here in Austin, Texas, and is known as the DaVinci of Contemporary Photography. And we have the honor of having him in our studio today. Dan Winters, award-winning photographer, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Dan Winters: Thanks for having me.

Jennifer Sanders: The documentary series premiered yesterday at South by. First, walk me through that experience, because we were talking off-camera, and you said that it was quite an emotional experience.

Dan Winters: Yeah, it was. The thing about my episode, at least, in the series is that it’s a very human story. It’s not sort of like a puff piece about some, you know, photographer traveling the world, that elements in it, for sure. But it comes back to kind of a family piece, my wife and my son are featured prominently in it, and you know, overcoming struggles, and it’s a really beautiful little kind of poem. Really.

Jennifer Sanders: So, let’s start from the beginning of the career, this resonated with us, many of us here, you started out as a photojournalist for a newspaper. What though, was a turning point for you, Dan, that led you to really this colorful, celebrated career in photography. He has done some iconic shots that if you saw them, you would be in awe.

Dan Winters: I think, you know, photojournalism, for me, I think the core of my work, especially my commercial work, has always been storytelling. And it seemed to be a natural progression. I think that, you know, when I was shooting for the newspapers, stuff would run one day, and it’d be gone. And I liked the idea of a little bit more longevity. So, magazines made sense. And, you know, in the 80s, when that was happening for me, kind of the photo essay was still championed in magazines, and that’s dwindled quite a bit. Actually, Texas Monthly is one of the last magazines in the US that runs large scale photo essays. So, we have that to be thankful for here in Texas. But you know, I have to put it back to the photojournalism days, because I will say that the job at the newspaper was one of the best times of my life, it was incredible. ‘62 Volkswagen, two cameras, a scanner, you know, like, go, yeah, it was awesome, young, early 20s. You know, so it was kind of a wonderful time.

Jennifer Sanders: So, for you, what experience has shaped you and how you navigate through photography and helped you really hone your craft.

Dan Winters: I mean, I would say probably experience is reigns supreme with any kind of profession, you know, the more you do it, the more of the feedback you get, if you pay attention to the, you know, your mistakes and your victories, you start to hone in ability to kind of be consistent. And you know, in commercial work, consistency is everything. You know, people want to know that they’re spending their money, and they’re gonna get a picture out of it. You know, I had an instructor once say that the difference between a professional and an amateur photographer was its compulsory that a professional comes back with an image. And that’s absolutely true. So, through, I think, through experience, but also like, I think the most important part for any kind of visual artists or artists in general is to be mindful of what you’re doing, and really pay attention to it. Because just your actions are going to give you feedback if you pay attention to them. And you’ll learn from your own actions, which I think is kind of a beautiful thing. Looking within rather than outside.

Jennifer Sanders: You have photographed people from Angelina Jolie, President Bush, what has been the best experience for you? And I know, there’s probably too many. But one of the top experiences for you that you felt like was really a defining moment, Dan, for your career.

Dan Winters: I’ll tell you a really funny one about President Bush. He, I shot his portrait, and I finished, and I said, ‘okay, I got it,’ you know, and he goes, ‘Dan Winters, you’re a great American.’ It was pretty funny. Yeah, I got a kick out of that. But, you know, there have been so many and, you know, I don’t ever seek out these shoots, you know, they come to me, and I react to assignments. And, you know, I just take all of them very, very seriously. And, you know, I try to honor the people I photograph and honor the activities of the events that I photograph. You know, I’ve been a witness to history many times, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing. So, to try to be, you know, to try to pay attention and stay connected with what I’m doing, I think is the best thing.

Jennifer Sanders: When you talk about being a witness to history, there are some challenges attached to that. What has been a challenging part of your job when you’re traveling overseas when you’re witnessing these historic events unfold in some time, the loss of life?

Dan Winters: I think the most difficult part of it. Well, there are many interesting things is like if I think about the amount of time I spend, getting to the point where I’m actually photographing, you know, it’s so out of balance with the time I spent photographing, you know, the logistics of like traveling overseas or whatever. And getting into a position where I’m actually shooting, you know, that can be really taxing because the actual photography, part of it is my comfort zone. You know, regardless if, you know, the walls of the building could be falling down around me, and I’m okay if I’m inside my camera, you know. So that’s, that’s it is, it’s an odd thing. But you know, I’ve done it for 40 years. So, you know, after 40 years, you kind of you figure it out.

Jennifer Sanders: So, have you ever during those 40 years really re-evaluated your career? Have you always had a passion for this? And known that ‘this is what I’m called to do’?

Dan Winters: Oh, there’s no question. Yeah, it’s absolutely like what I’m meant to be doing, for sure. And I tell students, you know, if there’s another option in your mind, if something else you could do besides this, then do that, because this is way too competitive. It’s way too difficult. As a profession, especially now getting into it, I think, you know, there’s a market saturation with people that are shooting, and back when I started, it was a much smaller community. You know, I mean, I knew a lot of guys, and now it’s just I don’t, I look at bylines, I don’t recognize anybody’s name anymore, you know, used to be kind of a group camaraderie that existed that’s kind of gone away. So, it’s difficult a difficult path. But I do think that, you know, if we’re meant, you know, there’s a great quote, I can’t remember who said it, but if we have something to offer the universe, the universe will beat a path to our door. And I really believe that I really believe that if we’re like honest about what we’re doing, and honest about how hard we’re working on something. I think it just works.

Jennifer Sanders: Yesterday, when you saw your episode of The Docu series, I know you’re used to being behind the camera, but you just revealing so much about your life, about your journey about your story. What touched you the most while you watched that episode.

Dan Winters: I started to realize how much my wife is like my rock, just watching it on screen, and how much pain to a degree I may have caused my wife and my son. And hopefully, you know, through a lot of work, having kind of regained sort of that connection. You know, like I said in the documentary, I’m grateful that I have a 30-year-old son that I talked to three times a day. So, to me, that’s a huge achievement. You know, just that closeness and probably my wife 30 times a day if I’m working.

Jennifer Sanders: What’s next for you?

Dan Winters: I got back from Dubai a couple of days ago. And I’m going on Thursday to Omaha, Nebraska and driving between Omaha and Chicago for 10 days working on a railroading photo essay that I’ve been working on for two years, all over the country. And this is a leg that I really specifically have wanted to shoot for a while. It’s a very, very busy corridor. And then I’m going from there to Palo Alto to shoot a New Yorker job and then I’m going to LA and then back to Palo Alto to keep working on the same New Yorker job. And then hopefully I get a little time off because I’m moving my studio and I really feel like I need to kind of like have a little decompression time.

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