Visiting Artist Lecture: Carolyn Drake

Carolyn Drake works on long-term photo-based projects seeking to interrogate dominant historical narratives and create alternative, imaginative interpretations of reality. Over time, she has molded a collaborative, multi-voiced, mixed media practice. With contributions from her collaborators, she has incorporated collage, drawing, sewing, and found materials into her work. She aims to expand the scope of documentary, collapsing the traditional divide between author and subject.

Following her graduation from Brown University in 1994, Drake moved to New York and worked as a multimedia producer for many years before departing to engage with the world through photography. She has made work across the world, in places such as Ukraine, Turkey, Central Asia, and China. She spent a decade based in Istanbul, producing three self-published photobooks: Two Rivers (2013), Wild Pigeon (2014), and Internat (2017). Drake is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship, and the Lange Taylor Prize. In 2018, the SFMOMA acquired and opened a six month solo exhibition of Wild Pigeon. She now lives in Vallejo, California and is developing projects in the U.S.