Artist Photographer David Goldner is a Los Angeles native who discovered photography in Jr. High School in the early 70s after his Father brought home a Canon SLR from a business trip he had taken to Japan. Within a week, David found that camera still in its box and asked his father if he could use it. He never gave it back...

By High School, David had his own dark room and was majoring in photography. After High School he attended Santa Monica College again majoring in photography. Later he attended the renowned Art Center College of Design.

One of David’s mentors from afar was Francesco Scavullo. A master of the black and white portrait, who recently passed away in 2004. I love his black & white images and the way he poses women for his camera. He’d use the lines of a face, the eyes, the lips, the shoulders, to create the composition within the image. I’ve always tried to take note of the angles of the face and body lines the way he did when I shoot glamour or anything for that matter . But… despite his major being photography, he was very influenced by many of the painters and designers at that prestigious school and by the world of art itself. Patrick Nagel and Alberto Vargas are two of the artists that are still among his favorites. Their influence in his work shows today. David attributes this influence to his father and his monthly subscription to Playboy Magazine that featured work from both of these artists.

While at Art Center in the late 70s David started to experiment with hand painting his own black & white photography using Marshall’s transparent photo oils, pencils and oil pastels. After painting a few small prints, he wanted to go bigger. He bought large rolls of fiber based black & white photo paper that had the right surface and began to make 40 x 60 prints to paint. Mixing the influences of his favorite photographers and artists, David began developing his own unique style that has continued to set his work apart from any traditional hand painted photography. For several semesters in the 80s, David taught his photo painting technique at UCLA as an extension course.

Over the last 30 years, David Goldner’s painted photographs have appeared on calendars, posters, record and magazine covers. Including Playboy. In addition, David has photographed and painted an impressive list of celebrities including; Renee Russo, Kim Bassenger, Demi Moore, Delta Burke, Casandra Peterson and of course her alter ego, Elvira.

Now, with the ever changing of times and technology David has evolved from film to digital. And from painting his images on large photo paper to now painting them on large archival canvas. The dark room is now the computer and was a natural transition for him. He now mixes his photography with his 3D computer art before adding his hand painted touch, taking the images and his new works to yet another level. This painting technique is basically the same as it was first done on the old black and white photographs in the late 1800s. And although David still starts most of his paintings with black & white prints, he is no longer limited to painting on that monotone medium as he mixes his photography with his computer art, now overlapping the pixels, pigments and paints.

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