Dani Venen wants to keep getting weirder. The 30-year-old photographer has over 38,000 followers on Instagram and 380,000 on TikTok, where she shares her distinct and unconventional style of photography with the world.
Venen, who was born and raised in Cleveland, traces her love for photography back to her grandparents who recorded her childhood on VHS tapes. “My grandpa always had a camera in his hand,” Venen says.
For the past four years, Venen has focused on photography full-time, after first starting to take photos as a hobby 13 years ago. She learned the craft from YouTube videos and books.
Her style evolved from basic portraits to her signature wacky photo shoots. For instance, one shoot features a pearl-clad and silk-gloved model slurping live worms with chopsticks. Another sees a model drenched in milk that was dyed neon shades of pink, blue and green.
“I find inspiration everywhere,” Venen says. “Sometimes I’ll even see a color and think, how can I incorporate that color into my work?”
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Along with her splashy approach to photography, Venen has mastered the social media game where her work has garnered millions of views on her @theeditorialstyle pages.
“If you really want to get that following, you have to do things people have never seen before,” she says. “I feel like doing that is what is really paying off for me.”
One of her most viral photoshoots titled “GLUTTONY,” a part of a “Seven Deadly Sins” themed series, has 4.8 million views on TikTok. In the project, a model sits behind a lavish feast while Venen captures stills of her viscerally shoveling food into her mouth.
Venen’s shoots often center on a distinct theme and the story grows from there. She offers “photoshoot roulettes” where models can be assigned themes at random. Themes range from shoots inspired by singers like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey to elements of nature and colors of the rainbow. “I like seeing something that already exists and twisting it into my own vision,” Venen says.
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Venen works out of Pop Shell Studio in Cleveland's Asiatown neighborhood. When she’s not taking photos in the studio she takes inspiration from the city and the natural beauty of the Cleveland area. These shoots include iconic landmarks like the Malley’s Chocolate silos and the enormous whale mural at the Cleveland Public Power Plant.
In the future, Venen hopes to photograph models at The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame or inside one of Playhouse Square’s historical theaters.
She notes that staying in Cleveland helped her flourish as an artist and she has no regrets about not moving to a city oversaturated with creatives, like New York City or Los Angeles.
“Cleveland is getting a lot more traction when it comes to people wanting to move here and find places to create,” Venen says. “I feel like living in Cleveland has allowed me to reach my full potential.”
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Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct a misspelling in Dani Venen's last name.
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