Surfing’s ultimate “hot guy” launches his new photo book for Rizzoli; lauded by acclaimed movie director; prints sell for $15,000!

According to Julian Schnabel, when looking at a Fuller photo “you can barely see and at the same time it is all you can see. You might not know if your eyes are open or closed.”

You know Danny Fuller. Stylish big-wave goofy-footer born in Hanalei, bred on Pipe, and splashed in Chanel Allure Homme.

You know he’s a model, and he’s also a noted photographer.

He just released a new book titled Liquid Horizons: Meditations on the Surf and Sea (Rizzoli, $55).

At first glance, many of Fuller’s photos look like simple blue watercolor washes, tie-dyes for the simple. But then we realize that his tool is a Pentax not a paintbrush; he’s got technical skill as well as a rare eye.

Most of the 200 collected photographs in the glossy hardbound collection are blurred to the point where the viewer can recognize large fields of sea and sky but little else. Minimalist blocks of blues stack like a Rothko if Rothko took mushrooms.

When I mention the comparison to Danny, he says it “would be the greatest compliment. My greatest form of influence comes from painters, especially of the abstract expressionist or surrealist movements. Some of my early works were being mistaken for paintings.”

Let’s hope that’s the only similarity. Rothko crossed a razor blade through the artery of his right arm. In contrast, Fuller’s photos are light and cheerful all around.

Anti-depressive, for sure.

A coffee table photo book from some unknown isn’t too appealing.

But we respect Fuller.

To watch him carve up a full-faced Indonesian wave is special. The images give us some insight into his frame of mind.

Each photograph was shot under the moonlight. Knowing this, it’s hard to understand how the images shine with such bright blues and purples. But we don’t need to understand things to appreciate them.

Danny clarifies. “By not having a readily identifiable structure, and therefore open to one’s interpretation and imagination, it lets us embark on an unexpected journey―allowing for deeper modes of seeing, feeling and transportation to another state of consciousness. By bending borders of perception and redefining visual representation, we can see beyond the naked eye.”

And we appreciate such clarity.

Liquid Horizons is Danny’s second collection of photographs. He feels that he’s constantly learning, as revealed in the new collection. He describes himself as a “student who continuously takes notes of his surroundings.”

At $15,500 for one of his enlarged prints hanging in Fort Lauderdale’s New River Art Gallery, Danny apparently also studies economics.

For us, opting for the book might be more attractive as you can enjoy all of Danny’s pieces and still buy a solid work truck.
The only smudge on the otherwise wonderful book is the unneeded attempt to lend credibility to it. Artist Julian Schnabel and Pipe king Gerry Lopez bookend the collection, each providing a tangle of meta-gibberish in attempts to translate Danny’s work into words.

According to Schnabel, when looking at a Fuller photo “you can barely see and at the same time it is all you can see. You might not know if your eyes are open or closed.”

That’s fine for Mr. Schnabel, but we, the uninitiated, might prefer looking at art with our eyes open.

Danny’s commentary, though, doesn’t fly far from theirs. At least he’s the creator of the images.

“I’m interested in pushing beyond the status quo of documentation and static mode of representation,” he says. “Looking deeper than the surface layer of what one perceives and revealing the obscured interweaving and controlled chaos of the nature. Here, one finds the mysteries of form, color and texture that activate visual thinking to create new meanings.”

Magical, yes?

For fifty-five bucks plus shipping, let us at least enjoy making our own half-cooked parallels between Danny’s photos and the transcendence of the universal super-conscious.

Fortunately, the book exists in the physical world and is available here.