Daniel Traub

Daniel Traub (born 1971, Philadelphia) is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker. Much of his work focuses on border regions and marginalized communities. Traub's photographs have been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago, Slought Foundation in Philadelphia and the Lianzhou Photo Festival in China. His work can be found in public and private collections, such as the Margulies Collection at the WAREhOUSE and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Daniel Traub's work has also appeared in publications including Aperture, European Photography and The New York Times Magazine.

Daniel Traub grew up in Philadelphia, the son of architect David S. Traub and artist Lily Yeh. He is also the nephew of photographer and educator Charles H. Traub.

Traub began photographing at age twelve exploring the streets of Philadelphia. He later studied photography formally with Joel Sternfeld at Sarah Lawrence College as well as film production and film history with Abigail Child and Gilberto Perez respectively. He received his MFA from the MFA Photo, Video and Related Media department of the School of Visual Arts in New York City where he studied with Raghubir Singh, Max Kozloff and others.

Traub lived in China from 1998 to 2007 where he was engaged with long-term photographic projects, including Simplified Characters, a series of street pictures that explore the vast changes at the beginning of the 21st century in Chinese cities, as well as the series Peripheries, which looks at the landscape at the outskirts of several major Chinese cities. In 2007 he moved back to the United States and began a project looking at the city where he was born, Philadelphia. He also continued to travel extensively, including returning frequently to China where he worked on the longterm project from 2009 to 2014 Little North Road.

Daniel Traub has published two monographs with Kehrer Verlag: North Philadelphia (2014) and Little North Road (2015).

North Philadelphia is a photographic portrait of a neighborhood in prolonged crisis. The book presents a glimpse into an urban area that hovers between decay and possibility, and is emblematic of many such regions across the United States. Made between 2008-2013, North Philadelphia combines images of dilapidated homes, vacant lots, and street corners with portraits of the residents.

Little North Road is a photographic collaboration that looks at a pedestrian bridge in the middle of Guangzhou. The bridge serves as a symbolic gateway into China from Africa. At the heart of this project is a selection of images collected from two Chinese itinerant portrait photographers, Wu Yong Fu and Zeng Xian Fang. Equipped with digital cameras, they have made a living making portraits for Africans and other groups who wanted a memento of their time in China. Daniel Traub’s photographs on the bridge and immediate vicinity explore the broader dynamics of the area and provide a context through which to see these portraits.

As a filmmaker, Traub has directed documentaries including the feature length Barefoot Artist about Lily Yeh and her collaborative artworks in war-torn communities; and Xu Bing: Phoenix, which highlights the condition of Chinese migrant labourers. He has been the director of photography for numerous documentaries and reports for networks and production companies including PBS, Arte and German Television ZDF where he worked extensively with senior correspondent Joachim Holtz. In 2011, Daniel Traub founded the film production company Itinerant Pictures. He is currently at work on a feature-length documentary on the artist Ursula von Rydingsvard.

Solo

• Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA, 2015
• Bluesky Gallery, Portland, OR, 2012
• Lianzhou Foto Festival, Lianzhou, China, 2011
• Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, 2010
• Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, IL, 2008
• FotoFest, Houston, TX, 2008 (Two-person exhibition)
• Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Northern Ireland, 2007 (Two-person exhibition)

Group

• Ivorypress, Madrid, Spain, 2016/2017
• James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA, 2016
• SF Camerawork, San Francisco, CA, 2016
• Chinese Culture Center, San Francisco, CA, 2016
• GallerySKE, New Delhi, India, 2015
• Moore College of Art and Design, Philadelphia, PA 2014
• Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR 2013
• CFEVA Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2012
• RH Gallery, New York, NY 2012
• Times Museum, Guangzhou, China 2010
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA 2009
• Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA 2009
• 24th Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères, Hyères, France 2009
• Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA 2009
• M97 Gallery, Shanghai, China 2007
• Jen Bekman Gallery, New York, NY 2007
• Houston Center for Photography, Houston, TX 2007
• Lianzhou International Photo Festival, Lianzhou, China 2005
• Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan 2005
• Visual Arts Gallery, New York, NY 1998
• Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, NY 1995
• Asian American Arts Center, New York, NY 1995

• "Little North Road 小北路 - Programs – Slought". 12 December 2016. 
• com, brandon sorg - brandonsorg [at] gmail [dot]. "Daniel Traub - Blue Sky Gallery". 
• "Little North Road 小北路 - Exhibition – Ivorypress Madrid". 28 November 2016 – 14 January 2017.  CS1 maint: Date format (link)
• ^ "New Show Views Chinese Culture Through Recontextualized Photos". 

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
• Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, FL
• Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
• Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

• "Daniel Traub". 
• "The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse". 
• "Daniel Traub". 

• Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Prize, France, Finalist, 2016
• The Photo Review Competition, First prize, 2009
• Atlantic Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Residency, 2009
• Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia, PA, Fellowship, 2009
• 24th Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères, France, Finalist, 2009
• Photo District News 30, 2008
• FotoFestiwal, Lodz, Poland, Award, 2007

• "The 2016 PhotoBook Awards Shortlist". 
• "The Photo Review - 2009 Competition Winners". 

• Little North Road, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany 2015. ISBN 978-3-86828-629-8 (monograph)
• North Philadelphia, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, Germany 2014. ISBN 978-3-86828-478-2 (monograph)
• Chinescape, Zeng Han, Ed. Shenzhen, China 2010. ISBN 9110328130

• designallee. "KEHRERVERLAG · Program · Daniel Traub". 
• "Chinescape: Contemporary Chinese Landscape Photography Exhibition - Asia Art Archive".