Katy Grannan

Set in the parched landscape and forgotten towns along California’s Highway 99, the artist’s vivid color portraits present subjects who are simultaneously heroic and vulnerable.

A series of portraits made with strangers the artist met on the streets of San Francisco and Hollywood, California. Photographed against white walls in the glaring noon sunlight, each individual is recognized and uniquely emphasized.

Working collaboratively with her subjects, the artist explores the relationship between aspiration and delusion, and how our desire for attention confronts the prospect of anonymity.

A series of portraits made collaboratively with non-professional models, set outdoors near Mystic Lake, outside Boston.

Revisiting an area documented by Walker Evans in the 1930s and 40s, Grannan photographs sitters in their homes and locations around Allentown, Pennsylvania. Each photograph is imbued with secrecy, desire, and hidden intentions.

Through portraits made with amateur models on public lands, Grannan probes the overlapping and clashing motivations of subjects, photographers, and viewers—each playing a different role in the complex drama of looking and being seen.

In melancholy portraits set in the sitters’ own homes, the artist’s subjects steadily hold the camera’s gaze, conveying an innate desire to hold power and be seen.

The series takes its name from the local newspaper in which the artist placed a classified ad: “Art models. Artist/photographer (female) seeks people for portraits. No experience necessary. Leave msg.”