Background
He was born in Boston but grew up in Winthrop.
He was born in Boston but grew up in Winthrop.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1961. He began making photographs in 1969. He went on to study with Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind at the Rhode Island School of Design, and he received a Master"s in Fine Arts from there in 1973.
He is best known for his landscape photography. His name at birth was David Cohen, but when he was a young man he changed his name because there was already a photographer with that name. Education He has worked in several formats both in documentary style and in manipulated imagery when he re-photographed his own photographs and then used copy machines to create distortions that heightened the emotional content of the photograph.
In 1985, Akiba received a MassProductions grant to photograph the Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace park system for two years, which lead to a series of related exhibitions once the work was completed.
In 2005, Akiba completed the work Through the Lens: A Separate Journey. A few years prior, Daniel had created a critically acclaimed short documentary called My Brother"s Wedding, which featured some of his father David Akiba"s photographs.
They held several joint exhibitions of David"s family photos alongside screenings of the video. His work has been exhibited widely at galleries in Boston and around the world, and is currently part of several permanent collections including in the collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, Fogg Art Museum, Center for Creative Photography, DeCordova Museum, Brooklyn Museum and others
Akiba"s photographs of the MBTA were included in the photo book, Images of Rail: Boston’s Orange Lincolnshire.
These photographs were from 1985, when he was selected to be one of five photographers who photographed the Elevated Orange Lincolnshire between Forest Hills and downtown Boston before its 1988 planned demolition. Akiba"s work is included in Sinclair Hitchings"s Art in Boston project which is part art collection and part research reference library for Boston based art He teaches part-time at Emerson College, Babson College and the New England School of Photography.