Dani Coyle: Pulling focus
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Combining her ongoing portrait project, Inter-Face, which focuses on the intersex community, and her work [as global creative lead] with Burberry, among other luxury brands, Dani Coyle talks to Tim Cumming about her work, her process, the all-encompassing terrain of social, and her balancing cultural and sexual politics with the lineaments of luxury.
What was your route into becoming a photographer?
I wouldn’t call myself a photographer. It’s more that the camera is one of many mediums I’ve experimented with, and was one of the ways I got into creating visual work. It was an organic process. I didn’t one day pick up a camera and think, ‘Oh, I want to be a photographer’. But it was something I played around with to communicate and to be communicated with.
[Photography] was something I played around with to communicate and to be communicated with.
Where did you train?
I went to art school in Kingston. Photography was seen as this holy grail of quick communication. We were taught it within the frame of advertising, and that’s stayed with me: How can I make someone look at this image and get them to have that ‘a-ha’ moment and be interested in the work? It was less about creating beautiful images, but thinking about how you can get someone’s attention and how can you tell a story with one image. More concept-driven. That’s what really interests me.
Above: Sasha and Sonia from 2021.
Did you come from a creative background?
No, but from a young age, I wanted to be within the creative sphere. I wanted to work in fashion, then I realised what I loved about fashion wasn’t making or designing garments, but the marketing in a world built around luxury. They do storytelling exceptionally well because you have to justify why a handbag is £5,000, and you have to do that emotionally.
This portrait series is softer and evokes personality and humanises people that are often dehumanised.
Tell us about the Inter-Face project.
Inter-Face is a documentary portrait series I started in 2018 to combat the medicalisation and pathologisation of intersex people and the imagery that accompanies them. Typically, you would think of medicalised imagery: digital, crisp, scientific documentation.
This portrait series is softer and evokes personality and humanises people that are often dehumanised. While working in luxury and fashion is about selling an image, I use my personal work as a balm to that. It’s not about whether it’s perfectly in focus or the most beautiful image; that’s not the point. It’s part of an ongoing collection that means and says something.
Above: River, Ana, and Hans.
What equipment do you use?
With my professional work, I often use an iPhone so it’s very crisp and cost-effective, and it’s the way the world is going. I also have little digicams and point-and-shoot digital cameras from 2010 that I still use.
But I also have the Contax G2 and use film cameras when it feels appropriate. For the portrait series, using film felt right because it’s about having that humanity and imperfection come to the front.
For the portrait series, using film felt right because it’s about having that humanity and imperfection come to the front.
What did you do at Burberry?
I worked for three years as the Global Creative Lead of Social. Riccardo Tisci was leaving as Creative Director and Daniel Lee from Bottega was coming in. It was a great chance to define what the new era of Burberry would look like on social. That was in 2022, and since then the social content landscape within these luxury brands has really changed.
What we were doing at the time felt really new, but now it’s harder to make something that feels fresh within that space, because we’re so bombarded and saturated with it. Since I left Burberry in 2024, I’ve worked with Loewe, Gucci, Aesop, Dallara and Lanvin. Pretty much solely luxury.
Above: Ray photographer in 2026.
Is all your work focused on social?
It’s not always social, but it’s always digital. A lot of it is short-form video, which is interesting because it’s difficult to reinvent that over and over again. You’ve got 10 seconds to grab someone’s attention, and how do you do that in a way that feels authentic, to the brand and the platform it lives on?
Gen Z and Gen A are extremely digitally literate, so it’s very difficult to put something in front of them and get them to engage with it. But it’s a fun challenge.
You’re nominated as an Innovator by Richard Brim – was that a surprise?
It’s such a surprise and privilege to be nominated by him! I feel shocked and honoured.
It’s hard to balance the draw of wanting to be a pure artist and make things that are beautiful and meaningful
What’s your next goal?
It’s hard to balance the draw of wanting to be a pure artist and make things that are beautiful and meaningful, and then also having to make money but wanting to bring some of that integrity into your professional work. It’s finding that balance between the two that’s interesting. Hopefully I’ll find a nice space where they both balance and feed into one another.
