Our World, Their Lens
“It was exploring the unknown and trying to make it known to the rest of the world that led to Dan’s death. In the months before he died he made a name for himself covering the civil war in Somalia. Dan took searing images of the conflict’s innocent victims — skeletal children and starving men […]
An Excerpt from “Art of Life”: Arriving in Blantyre
An excerpt from the book Art of Life by Jennifer New. In the last week of the trip, Dan put a new sticker on Deziree’s bumper: “Positive Vibrations.” They needed the sentiment as they skirted the Mozambique border on their way to Bantyre. The area had a trashed, desolated look. The purpose of the trip, largely overlooked […]
Our World, Their Lens
It’s that day of the year that everyone whips out their old American flag T-shirt to attend the local parade, grill out and play corn hole with the family in the backyard, and end the night looking up at a brilliant display of fireworks. This day to rep our red, white and blue represents so much more […]
Meeting Ralph: An Essay
Ralph Waldo Emerson By Dan Eldon It’s Monday and time to do my essays for class. Gone are the days of churning out a page and a half on “what I did last summer or over the weekend.” For Wednesday I have due: “Discuss the characteristics of Romanticism, using examples from Goethe, Wordsworth, and Keats” […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: Chelsea Nicole
I was introduced to Dan Eldon’s book “The Journey is the Destination” in 2004 by my high school art teacher. Dan’s imagery inspired me greatly, and his story was completely fascinating to me. As a young artist I imitated his work, fell in love with multi-media collage and had my room decorated with his posters. […]
Our World, Their Lens
“Somalia’s food production system, once relatively strong, had been obliterated, a situation that was only heightened by the country’s longtime over reliance on outside aid. By the spring of 1992, a small number of aid workers and journalists who had been in the country’s interior began to share disturbing news: a famine was under way.” – Art of […]
An Excerpt from “Art of Life”: Safari
An excerpt from the book Art of Life by Jennifer New. Mtu hujua atokako, hajui aendako. – Swahili proverb (“One knows where they are coming from, not where they are going.”) To Western ears, “safari” conjures up visions of a hunting adventure: Teddy Roosevelt or Ernest Hemingway on an apocryphal sojourn, packing a couple of Remington shotguns, […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: Shazdeh Omari
When I was a sophomore in high school in 1997, a teacher showed me Dan’s journal and let me spend the 40-minute period looking at it. I saved up money that summer and bought it from a Border’s, excited to get home and take it out of the bag. I spent hours poring over it, […]
An Excerpt from “Art of Life”: Discovery
An excerpt from the book Art of Life by Jennifer New. No one remembers exactly how the bag arrived at Mike Eldon’s home in Nairobi, only that it took several weeks after Dan’s death to get there. It was a black nylon military bag, something he’d come by in a trade with a Marine, the same way […]
The Journey is the Inspiration: J. Dean
Dear Dan, I never met you, but learning about your life has resonated deep within me. I felt a connection that has no barriers when it is about another soul’s journey triumphing in the dark and ugly spaces. Your life took you to a wider World than mine has been, in which you met and […]
![Dan Eldon: Safari as a Way of Life [book]](https://i0.wp.com/www.daneldon.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/cvr_safariUpdte-thumb.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 "Dan Eldon: Safari as a Way of Life [book]")
![Dan Eldon: The Journey Is the Destination [book]](https://i0.wp.com/www.daneldon.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/cvr_Journey-Destination-thumb.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 "Dan Eldon: The Journey Is the Destination [book]")
![Dan Eldon: The Art of Life [book]](https://i0.wp.com/www.daneldon.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2001/08/cvr_art-of-life-thumb.jpg?resize=50%2C50&ssl=1 "Dan Eldon: The Art of Life [book]")