Daniel Holfeld (b. 1984) was born in Dublin and graduated with a BA [Hons] in Photography from Dublin Institute of Technology in 2008.
After more than a decade working in fashion and commercial photography, he returned to his primary focus; visual art in 2018. His practice explores architecture as a psychological, cultural and social space, using long-term photographic projects to examine how the built environment shapes perception, memory, identity and lived experience.
Rather than documenting architecture as static form, Holfeld approaches it as an expression of history, culture and human experience. Through precise framing, geometry, colour and light, he transforms surfaces, structures and spatial relationships into abstract compositions that invite viewers to reconsider how architecture is seen and experienced.
His practice is grounded in sustained engagement with place. Through research, repeated observation and close visual attention, he allows the character and symbolism of a site to emerge over time. His photographs occupy a space between architectural documentation and abstraction, exploring ideas of identity, permanence, belonging and individual experience within the built environment.
His major projects include The Space Between, a photographic interpretation of Ricardo Bofill’s La Muralla Roja; Conveying Space, commissioned by University College Dublin to mark the university’s 50th anniversary; and LEVELS, exhibited at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 2025. Across these bodies of work, Holfeld has developed an increasingly interpretive approach to architecture, using the camera not simply to record space, but to examine how space affects the individual.
Since returning his primary focus to fine art photography in 2018, his work has been exhibited in Ireland, the UK and internationally, and is held in permanent collections including the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Robert Elwall Photography Archive, University College Dublin, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the OPW Irish State Art Collection.
Enquiries: holfeld.daniel@gmail.com
