PHSNE is pleased to present a lecture by Brian Taylor, a renowned contemporary photographer, professor, and gallery director. Known for his lively lectures on historic and contemporary photography, Brian leads us on a fascinating journey through his own photography over the past 50 years. Find the recording below.

Beginning as a young disciple of strict, West Coast Zone System Photography under Ansel Adams, Brian eventually discovered his own voice. His innovative artworks reveal his explorations of alternative photographic processes including historic 19th-century printing techniques, combining photography with mixed media and handmade books.

In 2017, Redwood City, CA commissioned a permanent public art project as part of its sesquicentennial celebration. Brian created a “large, six-foot tall photo sculptural ‘book’ with 20 pages forming 10 open spread diptychs. Each pair of images serves as an iconography presenting a pervasive quality of the city.” The pages span the eras including precivilization, settlement, the coming of the railroad, redwood trees, to modern development. https://www.briantaylorphotography.com/#/nacht/

His work has been exhibited nationally and abroad in numerous solo and group shows and is included in the permanent collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY. He also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Polaroid Corporation, and published in American Photographer, Alternative Photographic Processes, Photo Asia, Photographic Possibilities, and Seizing the Light: A Social and Aesthetic History of Photography. Brian taught as a Professor of Photography at California State University, San Jose for 40 years, and served as the Chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

After university teaching, Brian served as the Executive Director of the Center for Photographic Art (founded in Carmel, California by Ansel Adams) from 2015-2019. Now gleefully back in his darkroom and studio, Brian continues to lecture and teach workshops for arts organizations across the country from Stanford University in California to the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina. Additional samples of Brian’s work can be seen on his website https://briantaylorphotograpy.com; for a Lenscratch interview of Brian is available at https://lenscratch.com/2019/06/the-brian-taylor-mixtape/. Please join us for a broad and diverse visit with Brian Taylor—watch the recording below.