In connection with Fraenkel Gallery’s 2025 exhibition Katy Grannan: Mad River, we take a closer look at the artist’s ongoing new series of portraits, made in Northern California’s Humboldt County. Grannan offers insight into her process through behind-the-scenes video made as she collaborates with her subjects. She describes how the series developed and what she hopes to accomplish with it.
“I first heard about Humboldt County when I was on assignment for The New York Times Magazine. It’s very rugged and remote. It’s about five hours from San Francisco, and it’s astonishingly beautiful and largely undeveloped. There’s a lot of mythology surrounding Humboldt County as a place where people go to disappear, and as a region that attracts hippies, outlaws, as well as people who want to be intimately connected to nature. The mountains, the ocean, farms and rivers are a constant backdrop of daily life.”
“When I moved to Humboldt, I didn’t know anyone. So my first instinct was to meet people through photography. I placed ads in Craigslist and on flyers that I hung around town. And I was really curious that in a place that’s known for its remoteness, who would be interested in being seen? I met an incredibly diverse, creative, and collaborative group of people: actors, musicians, artists, students, farmers, even their pets and livestock, their children. I’ve met a large number of people who identify as gender non-conforming. They’re unabashed and self-possessed and they know their value and their right to be seen, and seen respectfully. This aligns with my intentions and my belief in the importance and value of thoughtfully seeing.”
“Photography for me is about insisting on beauty and the importance of connection and the value of paying attention. But of course, the truest definition of beauty is a complicated one. It’s closer to the idea of the sublime, which is a combination of awe, terror, and beauty. There’s always something complicating beauty in its truest form.”
“At times I work with people three, four times. Each person is so distinctive and every person responds to the camera in a unique way, I always rely on their collaboration. I always rely on their generosity and I’m always surprised at how open and how creative people are. I think play is a respite from all the madness, the chaos that engulfs us every day and connection is a source of healing and belonging and sharing, and experience.”
“It’s easy to feel isolated and powerless, but I’ve found meaning and connection, throughout my entire life, through observing the world through the lens of a camera. These interactions matter. They resonate and they restore my faith.”
“There is a palpable intimacy that changes with each person because some people are a little shy and reticent, others are incredibly outgoing and expressive, and others move with more subtlety. Each time I photograph someone, it’s starting over, and I’m responding to all these cues—how they move their bodies, the shapes that they make, some of the histories that are conveyed just in the landscape of the face or gesture. It’s different every time, and it’s always new. Each person is a mystery.”
