Brian is my photographic brother from another mother. Half of my favorite instant film photography duo and an all-around awesome human. I met Brian and Mary at Polacon 3. I had no idea that day that I met someone who would become family to me. Here’s a bit more about Brian in his own words.

“Brian Garbrecht is an artist from Elgin, IL, who is currently an undergrad student at Northeastern Illinois University. He is working on a long term project about being an adopted person and the search for one’s family and self identity, told through the mixing of original photographs, family archives, and important documents. For this project he received the Society of Photographic Education’s 2020 Student Award for Innovations in Imaging. Most recently, an image from this series received 1st Runner Up in the LENS International Juried Exhibition at Perspective Gallery in Evanston, IL, curated by J. Gibran Villalobos of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Brian has been interested in photography since childhood but didn’t start creating on his own till 2014 when taking a darkroom photo class. Since then, he has shot with every analog film format he could get his hands on, including Polaroids, and wet plate (tintypes), as well as mixing mediums with screen printing. In 2019 he curated an instant film exhibition titled “Before My Eyes”, featuring artists from around the world who use instant film in their work.”

Follow Brian at https://www.instagram.com/theoryofbrian/

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