Thomas Demand Daily #38, 2024

In 2008 the artist began the series Dailies, based on images of small incidents of commonplace events that the artist took with his cell phone camera.

The Dailies is the first series for which Thomas Demand has used dye transfer printing. This method is known for the saturated colors, spatial depth and durability of the print, but also for its long production time. The process is closely associated with the work of William Eggleston who introduced its use in the mid 1970s into art photography. In the 1990s, when advertising agencies and fashion magazines converted to digital processing, most commercial labs had to close. In 1994 Eastman Kodak stopped production of the materials needed for this process. The lab the artist employs is one of the few that bought up stock and now continue to use the process.

The creation of the images of the Dailies series, like other works by Thomas Demand, entails the building of a detailed model. Yet because of the apparent fleetingness of images of everyday objects, taken with his cell phone camera, this emphasis on duration creates an interesting paradox. This impression is further emphasized by the series’ use of the labor-intensive and time-consuming dye transfer printing technique.