Author: Brandon Gannon

Folding and Mending The hand-folded, burned, and stitched prints in my “Folding and Mending” project are a way of expressing “the world folding in on itself.” We have created an imbalance in which our world is collapsing and my images allude to the results. While large, complex solutions are needed, there are small things each […]

Thirty Three + a Third Like many music lovers of a certain generation, I grew up listening to music with my friends, sprawled out on the living room rug, scanning album covers for art and information—very different from today’s solitary, playlist-driven, shuffle-play, music-on-the-go experience. We would flip through our records, scanning and choosing from albums […]

Arrested Decay These images emerged from a series of recent projects exploring age, transformation, beauty and decay. Subjects which have been very present for me as I’ve entered my fifties and taken stock of my life and career.

The Red Purse “The Red Purse” is about loss and transition. When I became a young widow, I struggled with sadness, conflict and guilt. I was grieving the loss of my own identity along with the loss of my husband. I felt numb, raw and exposed then suddenly felt very sexual and alive. Anything was […]

This is Water “This is Water” explores self-awareness and its nemeses: blind certitude and unconsciousness. It is inspired by a speech from David Foster Wallace. He shared the story of two fish swimming along who meet an older fish swimming in the opposite direction. The older fish asks “How’s the water, boys?” The two young […]

Meeting the Shadow As I sit in my garden, I watch life become more and more fragmented – the pandemic, politics, issues of race and ethnicity, personal losses, all contribute to an unhinged surrealism. Here in my garden, I understand that the beauty and decay among the verdure serve as a metaphor for this new […]

one, one thousand … “I suppose you have received many letters from desperate mothers. Here is mine.” My sister wrote these words to a neurologist in 1997 when my nephew was two years old. one, one thousand… is a different kind of love story. It is an unconventional documentary exposing the impact a rare and […]

Without a Map How does one move through life with the scars of the past? When I was ten, my mother died unexpectedly from a heart attack. I couldn’t understand where she went or when she would return. Just as I began to comprehend this loss, my father died. I was without support from my […]

Memory Building My parents died within a few months of each other. They lived in the same house for 60 years, from the day they were married until their deaths. Once they were gone, I was left with my grief, memories of our lives together, and all their possessions, including a well- organized archive of […]

On the National Language In “On the National Language”, the photographer – who specializes in the intersection between poetry and the visual image- works with speakers of America’s roughly 100 endangered languages to create poignant images that reflect not only the subjects but their underlying languages and cultures. Many of these speakers are among the […]