I am a self-recording wanderlust, documenting life along the back roads of the world. I am the eyes and voice of the open road,” Daryl Hawk has written.He means it.Further, Hawk believes in the possibility of having adventures, and because he believes, the adventures happen. If the rest of us can’t achieve that goal, well, no matter. If we’re fortunate, we’ll know, as Daryl Hawk does, that the journey itself is the adventure.
A corporate and portrait photographer based in Wilton, Connecticut, Hawk regularly packs his photo gear and takes to the road. He’s been in business for 10 years, with many of his assignments coming fiom the likes of IBM, General Electric, DuPont, Apple,IT&T and other members of the Fortune 500 gang. He contributes to their annual reports and brochures and takes their executive poitraits on location or in his studio. Hawk also does portrait for various business people, writers, musicians, actors and models right in his own backyard – the state of Connecticut. (In keeping with our issue’s theme, almost all of his work is done with 35mm equipment, unless someone specifically requests 2¼)
His portraits were his entrée into the corporate world. “The portrait business kept growing, and then I expanded into the corporate market,” he says, attributing some of his success in attracting and building that corporate trade to his business background. “I know what it takes to run a business – perseverance, persistence and follow-up. That was the key to getting into the big companies and have them see my work.”
Add organization to that list of business attributes, because that’s what it takes for Hawk to be able to take off a few times each year on his road trips and still maintain the corporate business that pays the bills.
Along with photography, the great passion of Hawk’s life has always been travel. “I really see myself as an adventure traveler and a documentary photographer.