This online viewing room showcases recent works by the American photographers Res (b. 1985) and Bryson Rand (b. 1982). Created over the course of several months in their respective homes in Sweden and Brooklyn, New York, the photographs offer intimate visions of domestic space as a metaphor for human interiority. Still lifes, self-portraits, and portraits of partners and close friends constitute the rich photographic universe depicted in these works. During a period in which life largely moved indoors, domestic spaces came to shape our ways of living and understanding ourselves. Photography emerged at the forefront of efforts to capture this altered world.
Harvard University professor Ewa Lajer-Burcharth has written extensively about the relationship between architectural space and the formation of human character. In her research, she describes “these new interior views… not only [as] a vision of richly described private life, but also [as] an image of a distinct mode of spatialized self-experience.” In contrast to public life, which can function as a performative arena, the home offers a place for self-reflection and observation. In this viewing room, the works of Res and Bryson Rand provide distinct perspectives on the relationship between interior space and subjectivity.
Made during their quarantine in Sweden, Res’s photographs reflect a complex range of emotions, including isolation, anxiety, longing, and recognition. In this series, still lifes serve as windows into the artist’s interior world and as a means of engaging with the emotions produced by solitude. As the artist explains, “Under these conditions of isolation… I suppose you see that longing. My longing to laugh, to make a joke, to feel warmth, to share beauty, to share angst and anxieties—to be in conversation.”
Rich in detail and texture, Res’s photographs draw upon the materials of daily life. From the juxtaposition of fresh and wilting flowers purchased at the market to an enigmatic self-portrait, the images offer an intimate portrayal of life in quarantine that is both thought-provoking and emotionally engaging.
Bryson Rand’s photographs, in turn, respond to the conflicting emotions generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “In the photos I have made in the past few months,” the artist stated, “I hope to show the tension between feeling safe and cared for in my home, and the mental and physical stress and constraint I am under due to the pandemic.”
Rand’s works present intimate portraits of his husband, Ryan, and his close friend Patrick. The photographs are shaped by the interplay of light and shadow filtering through the apartment windows, which both reflects the sitters’ emotional states and appears to liberate their bodies within the surrounding space. Two works in particular, Patrick/Light & Shadows I and Patrick/Light & Shadows II, encapsulate this diversity of feeling.
Taken together, this selection of photographs reveals how interior spaces shape individual identity. Encompassing a range of subjects, from still lifes to portraiture, the images draw upon shifting moods and moments of self-reflection to bring us closer to an understanding of human interiority.
