Oceanside teen mounts first photo exhibit

In just two years, Daniel Tommasino has snapped nearly 50,000 photographs. But perhaps even more surprising is the age at which he started. Daniel first picked up a camera when he was 13, and since then, he has been snapping away, taking hundreds of pictures a week.

Now, the aspiring artist is receiving a big boost from his community. He currently has a solo exhibit – his first – at the Oceanside Library. “Art in the Yard – Hidden Beauty” features 57 of Daniel's photographs, ranging from shots of insects and flowers to photographs taken at a local junkyard.

Last year, Daniel and his father, who frequently visit the library together, asked how local artists could get their work featured in its gallery. Michelle Young, the library's program director, was immediately struck by Daniel's talent when she saw his portfolio. “It was very good for such a young person,” she said.

Although the library had featured the work of landscape, nature and portrait artists in the past, Young said it had never shown work like Daniel's. She was especially impressed by the photos of old, rusty cars and metals taken at the junkyard. Young explained that Daniel had a way of making objects usually seen as unattractive look quite beautiful. His exhibit features close-up photographs of headlights, swirling oil spills and peeling paint, among other subjects.

For such a young artist, Daniel explains his technique in great detail, from how he gets up close to his subjects (he rarely uses zoom), to noting the way the sunlight hits an object and the way colors “pop.” His mother, Hollie, said she noticed his talent when she saw some of his first pictures.

Daniel's parents recalled the first time he started taking photos, using his father's cell phone, during a family trip to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, where he snapped more than 200 photos. Noticing how their son enjoyed his new hobby, they decided to buy him a camera for his middle school graduation: a Fujifilm S700, 7-megapixel digital camera. Daniel said he took off running, never bothering to read the manual.