The American Vernacular

• Prize
  Silver in Fine Art/Collage
• Photographer
  Brandon Ralph
• Agency / Studio
  Brandon Ralph Photography
• Technical Info
  Photographs Taking Years And Miles Apart Collaged Together To Tell A New Narrative
• Photo Date
  2007-2020

The American Vernacular, Ralph juxtaposes images dominated by text, both unexpected and commonplace, often captured miles and years apart. These works further emphasize how semiotics differ by social, cultural, or historical contexts across the United States, yet as Ralph combines found words photographed in urban, suburban, and rural landscapes, they form a singular image where seemingly disparate people, and the American past and present, meet in seminal harmony. By resynthesizing text unbeholden to original meaning, Ralph seeks to form a new set of narrative possibilities, a new language,

Raised by a single mother in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood, Brandon Ralph’s perspective was shaped by the contrast between his mother’s belief in the American Dream and the reality of growing up on welfare with learning disabilities. Struggling in school, he was placed in special education and faced an unforgiving system. At eighteen, he lost both parents within six months, forcing him to drop out of NYU. These hardships inform his work, where he uses photography, sculpture, and drawing to explore identity, resilience, and cultural coexistence, inviting viewers to reflect on persever