Biography

Dale was born on Friday the 13th and raised in a home shaped by absence and the quiet endurance of women. As a young person, he found his way into the church through friends and their families, becoming deeply drawn to its language, symbols, and promises. Those early experiences continue to surface in his work, particularly in his fascination with belief, doubt, isolation, and the things people leave behind.

Working across photography, collage, and mixed media, Dale makes images that often feel caught between the sacred and the unsettling. His subjects range from solitary figures and rural spaces to religious objects, roadside memorials, graves, and other traces of belief. He is drawn to what remains after something has disappeared, whether that absence is physical, emotional, or spiritual.

What began as something he sought out became a system he eventually questioned and ultimately left. Walking away did not make its symbols disappear. They stayed with him, becoming part of the visual vocabulary through which he continues to examine belief, doubt, memory, and loss. At times, the work turns directly toward Christian beliefs and the questions surrounding them, using photography and collage to explore the tension between faith, doubt, and what remains after belief has been questioned.

Dale's work leaves room for contradiction. His photographs and collages don't attempt to resolve questions of faith, grief, or belonging. They sit with them.