Paul Dagys became a published poet at the age of 16, then declared victory and moved on to the slightly more practical field of photojournalism, influenced by the words of Ernest Hemingway, who said newspaper work was good for a writer, though if you do it for too long you could get to writing in a formulaic way.
He got his journalism degree from the University of Missouri.
Paul Dagys has been photographing America for more than 30 years.  He has been to  all of the first 48 states.  His work has been published in LIFE, Forbes, and Smithsonian magazines, and exhibited at several venues in America, including Duke University and Robin Rice Gallery in New York.
Trying to understand  humans as a photojournalist, he worked as feature writer and photographer for daily newspapers, in Kansas, Iowa, and Memphis, then worked on assignment for magazines, including Life, People, Forbes, and Smithsonian.
A few years ago,  Paul moved to Dover, where, he believes, one can write more prolifically, because the cultural climate is better than where he lived in America. He is the moderator of the ‘Beach Bards’ poetry writers group in Dover. with Peter Donnelly, Simon Partridge, Chris Burke and Hugh O’Hare.