BRENDAN NORTH

No Profit in Peace // Last week I visited the student encampment on the campus of Cal State LA and spoke with some of the people protesting in peace for their universtity’s divestment from major weapons manufacturers and from the state of Israel. Our major universities have become heavily invested in the industry of war while the students that sought higher education there drown in debt. One of the signs aptly summed up their fight as, “Drop tuition, not bombs.” This photograph is of the hands of a female Palestinian student who volunteered to help me bring this concept to life.

The military industrial complex relies on war to survive. It feeds on fear and it craves instability. The profits of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are more important than the lives of the people their weapons destroy. There is no profit in peace.

2 years ago

Centerfold // This was actually the first shot I took all day. We gave this Beverly Hills home the accent piece it needed and for a moment, the Playboy Mansion of the 70s lived again. Staying true to the time period, this was shot on medium format film on a Hasselblad camera made in 1973 🎞️

2 years ago

This world is empty but the servers are full.
We couldn’t resist your digital pull.
So when the future is lost and reality dies
I hope you tell me beautiful lies…

These are the newest pieces of my ongoing “Painted Poetry” series. I’ve been using virtual reality headsets in my work to explore our obsession with the digital world for 5 years now. So with the release of the Vision Pro and its cultural impact, these images became the next step in that exploration. @hayleemack locked in the matrix, shot by me.

2 years ago