SECOND PLACE- Conner Gordon
L.A. Photo Curator: Global Photography Awards - 'Where Photography & Philanthropy Meet' SECOND PLACE- Conner Gordon (Click on image for larger view)
GREYHOUND ON 70 by Conner Gordon
SECOND PLACE WINNER
(Click on image for larger view)

Curator Bree Lamb says, "Greyhound on 70', Gordon’s thoughtful use of perspective makes the image compelling.

At first glance I was drawn to the colors on the back of the headrest and the faint blue sky, and I eventually made my way to see the glasses and nose of the passenger.

The image takes a second to fully register, but once it does Gordon’s clever eye for composition and light become apparent."

Conner Gordon says of his work, "A sense of place often includes landscape, but a landscape may not always be a place. It takes memory - the layers of narrative and experience laid down by the past - for a landscape to inherit this distinction.

Yet, as critical as it is, memory is difficult to pin down. It resides in trace elements, lingering beneath the surface and welling up in reservoirs both purposeful and unintended.

I use photography to focus on these trace elements - not as scattered details, but as reference points that build a framework of place. At its core, this is an exercise in autobiography; by photographing a place, I document my own relationship with it. In doing so, I work to understand how political and environmental forces affect the landscape and its inhabitants, and how a place can amplify or obscure the memories that define it."

Conner Gordon (b. 1994) is an Indiana-based photographer and writer documenting the intersection between politics, place and memory.

His photos have appeared on platforms including Light Leaked, Aint-Bad, Art Narratives and Humble Arts Foundation. In 2017, his work was shortlisted for the I.P.F Photo Prize.

He is also a Graduate Fellow at the Prindle Institute for Ethics and the editor of The Prindle Post, where he covers ethical issues in current events and culture. His work can be seen at www.conner-gordon.com.

www.conner-gordon.com