Music and photography – not simply joined together, but blended in each aspect and context. Da Pá Virada represents Dani Gurgel in all formats, including video and design. Dani Gurgel has been a professional photographer since her early teens. She has over 10 years of professional experience, enhanced by her ability to adapt to new medias and new ways of expressing and sharing art. Her long experience as a musician is the foundation for her visual representation of sounds.
Da Pá Virada offers images for artists: portraits, concert photography, album artwork, design, music and release videos, site, blog and social network profiles; besides assisting independent artists with funding projects and recommending services for printing and distribution.
Dani’s studio photography is mostly for advertising agencies. She shoots campaigns for clients such as Kellog’s, Henkel, Pepsico, Natura and Azeite Gallo. Da Pá Virada relies on a team of talented costume, object, mock-up, hair, make-up and location artists and producers, specially invited to each job’s particular needs.
Dani Gurgel graduated from Escola Panamericana de Arte’s photography program when she was still in her teens. At that time, she also took many specialization courses at Senac-SP. She then started her bachelor studies in Social Communication at University of São Paulo.
During her time in college, she worked with photographer Marcel Valvassori as his first assistant. While working with him, Dani improved her skills on still/product and advertising photography, as she also assisted his partners Paulo Vainer, Rafael Costa and Andreas Heiniger. While still studying at USP, Dani also spent some time as an art director at advertising agency “Full Jazz”.
As of her graduation from USP in 2007, she published her monography “Photography and music: from vinyl to mp3, from film to mobile”, advised by Luli Radfahrer. It approaches the changes in the way we make and share art nowadays, in a digital context.
Currently, Dani has set two bold projects in motion. One slightly more photographic, which is a portrait series of Brazilian musicians, soon to become an exhibition in concert venues. The other one is slightly more musical: the podcast “Música de Graça” (Music for free), in which she invites artists to record an exclusive track, which is made available for download under a Creative Commons license.
Continuously, she produces her personal photographic series, largely shot while touring unexpected places. The Subway series is particularly rich, portraying the underground railroads of cities she has visited.
After playing various musical instruments during 15 years, Dani Gurgel was able to find the one she loves best: her voice. Dani has done a little bit of everything. She played the tenor sax in Robert Sion’s big band, and the baritone and soprano with Zimbo Trio. When she began to write songs with lyrics, after 15 years deep in the instrumental universe, Dani discovered singing. Her past makes it easy to understand why in the album “Nosso” (2008) her voice is constantly used as a musical instrument, and vocal solos complete the ensemble with the musicians’ improvisation.
With her eyes fixed straight ahead, but never forgetting to take a good look around, Dani strives to bring together musical talents with common goals – as was done by Elis Regina, who recorded songs by João Bosco, Gilberto Gil and Ivan Lins when they were still unknown. Dani organized a series of concerts in 2007, entitled “Dani Gurgel e Novos Compositores” (Dani Gurgel and the New Composers), which inspired her entire repertoire. This was also the theme to the concert with Tom Jobim Orchestra, in which she acted as curator and guest singer. American record label Artistshare™ was responsible for the recent worldwide release of her album “Agora”, which features 22 of her contemporary Brazilian composers.
As a singer-songwriter, Dani often writes lyrics to her partners’ music. Her songs are already part of many albums by singers such as Joana Duáh “(Dá Licença”, the title song, was written by Dani, Debora Gurgel and Thiago Rabello), Tatiana Parra (“Depois”, by Dani and Tatiana) and Adriana Godoy (“Talvez Humana”, by Dani and Debora Gurgel). Last but certainly not least, are the unreleased lyrics entitled “Estrada Bela”, written by Dani for Maria Schneider’s “The ‘Pretty’ Road”.
Curriculum Vitae
Dani Gurgel. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, where she still lives, in 1985.
2008 – 2012 | Personal photographic studio, in which Dani produces portraits, advertising campaigns, still products and album covers.
2007 – 2012 | Photographic coverage of concerts at Auditório Ibirapuera
2003-2012 | Portraits and album covers for artists such as Vicente Barreto, Filó Machado, Tatiana Parra, Mateus Sartori, Mônica Salmaso and labels Biscoito Fino, Borandá, Kalamata.
2011 | Founder, curator and developer of podcast Música de Graça, supported by ProAC – São Paulo State Government. It offers exclusive tracks by Brazilian artists for free download.
2011 | Teaches Concert Photography at Sesc Pompeia
2010 | “Viadutos” – DVD project supported by ProAC – Secretaria de Estado da Cultura de São Paulo
2009 | Winner of the Digital Innovation Converge Prize
2009 | “Agora – Dani Gurgel e Novos Compositores” – CD project, supported by ProAC – São Paulo State Government
2008 | Exhibition ‘Todo o som em pebê’ (All sounds in black and white), July/08 at Espaço Kabul.
2007 | Special student at IAR-Unicamp and FFLCH-USP post graduate courses.
2005-2007 | First assistant of photographer Marcel Valvassori, also assisting his partners Paulo Vainer, Andreas Heiniger and Rafael Costa.
2003 – Jun/2007 | Escola de Comunicações e Artes – Universidade de São Paulo (University of São Paulo – School of Communication and Arts)
Bachelor of Social Communication focused in Advertising and Propaganda
Final Monography: Fotografia e Música – Do vinil ao mp3, do filme ao celular. (Photography and music: from vinyl to mp3, from film to mobile)
It approaches the changes in the way we make and share art nowadays, in a digital context, particularly photography, music and music photography. It can be fully downloaded at www.danigurgel.com
2005 | Art director at Full Jazz Propaganda
2004 – 2005 | Specialization courses at Senac:
• Concert Photography – Prof. Jefferson Barcellos
• Portrait & Book – Prof. Rita Domiciano
• Portrait, Fashion & Beauty – Prof. Clicio Barroso
• Advertising Photography – Prof. Clicio Barroso
• Advanced Image Treatment for Photographers – Prof. Clicio Barroso
2004 | Workshop with René Burri | Leica Academie Brasil / Bob Wolfenson Studio
1999 – 2000 | Advanced Photography | Escola Panamericana de Arte
