About Danielle

Danielle Riley's interest in documentary photography emerged from work with students in her classroom, with youth organizations, and from back alley explorations of cities including New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.  She began photographing graffiti and street art over a decade ago and continues to expand her portfolio while learning more about documentary photography theory and practice and exploring the connections between graffiti and vandalism, cultural property and appropriation.  As an artist and folklorist, Riley is curious about the ways in which people define themselves and tell their stories through various graffiti, street art and vandalism. 

Her current project departs from photography and arrives in assemblage and installation. “Baggage Claim” ultimately will provide spaces in which viewer-participants are empowered to examine, construct, create, and critique, their personal baggage on both literal and metaphorical levels, giving audiences an opportunity to consider the gains and losses of laying bare the inner stuff of the self.  She believes a close examination of the stories people share or conceal can inform the exploration and development of collaborative local initiatives supportive of community programs, open education, and meaningful public policy.

Riley received her B.A. in English and education from The College of William and Mary and began teaching in 1992.  Until 2012, she worked primarily as an English teacher and literacy instructor in urban public schools.  She created and coordinated the artist-in-residence program at The School for Creative Studies in Durham and recently completed the master’s program in Folklore at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Riley was a recipient of the 2013 North Carolina Documentary Photography Award in UNC Chapel Hill’s North Carolina Collection for her work documenting graffiti throughout various parts of Durham County as relevant to the county’s economic decline, and of the Daniel W. Patterson Fellowship for Folklore Fieldwork in graffiti and street art.