Brandon Holland

So happy to share that I’m one of the 2025 Woodstock artists in residence at @cpw_kingston 🙏🏾 So much love and gratitude to the jury, everyone at CPW, and all the people who helped me along the way. Y’all really lifted me through this process. It’s an honor to be included alongside so many artists I admire. While I’m in Woodstock, I’ll be working on All of Me Remembers, a project exploring how Black history, memory, and the Southern landscape are intertwined. Can’t wait for the time, space, and community to dig deeper into this work. Photo by @photofelli ✌🏾

Hello,  We hope you are doing well, safe, and surrounded by loved ones in this new year.  The opening of As Wind, Within Trees at Fourth Wall (@fourthwallnola ) was a beautiful way to wrap up the year, and we would like to invite you to an artist talk in the exhibition space. The conversation will take place on Saturday January 11th, 1:00-2:30pm, and will be moderated by acclaimed artist, writer and curator L. Kasimu Harris (@visionsandverbs ) A little bit about the exhibition :  In a city where history whispers through live oaks and water rests just beneath the surface, “As Wind, Within Trees” invites viewers to journey into the intersections of ancestry, identity, and transformation. Through photography that bridges continents and generations, this joint exhibition illuminates the ways memory shapes and reshapes our collective and personal histories. Rooted in the landscapes of the African diaspora and the complexities of queer Muslim experience in France, these works delve into the reverberations of displacement, resilience, and belonging. Together, they explore how ancestral connections offer not only a path to healing but also the alchemy to redefine ourselves and our communities. Here in Bulbancha—the place of many tongues—these two projects find fertile ground, offering a meditation on the power of remembrance to honor the past and transform the present. We hope you can join us!

🏠 Step into the Mississippi Freedom Houses, sites of the civil rights movement Over the summer, photographer Brandon Holland traveled across Mississippi to document six Freedom Houses (@msfreedomhouses ). Each house played a pivotal role in the fight for equal rights, offering refuge for activists and organizers during the Freedom Summer of 1964 and beyond. For Holland, photography is a means of preservation. His images provide a record of the homes' enduring legacy and the efforts taken to preserve them. Learn how Holland captured each unique house—and story—at our link in bio. 📷 Brandon Holland for Mellon Foundation 1. Entrance of the Amzie Moore House, where the civil rights leader and voting rights activist lived. 2-3. Exterior of house, which is now an interpretative museum stewarded by Amzie Moore's son. 4. Exhibits within the home highlight Moore's work in the Cleveland community. 5. A vintage television set within the museum.

new story on second lines, bounce, and the roots of twerking—shot for society (france) out in print

This sculpture represents the amount of paperwork needed to register a person to vote in the 1960s. “It's a surreal amount of paper to see,” says Brandon Holland, a photographer documenting historic sites of the civil rights movement. “When looking at something like this, you understand this is like a war of manpower." The sculpture sits within the Amzie Moore House, an interpretive museum in Cleveland, Mississippi that pays homage to its late owner’s legacy. Born in 1911, Amzie Moore was a prominent civil rights leader in the Mississippi Delta and fought tirelessly to register Black voters. He worked alongside the SNCC to launch a voter registration drive during Freedom Summer in 1964. At his home, Moore provided a refuge for movement leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evans, and Fannie Lou Hamer. The house was restored by the Cleveland Heritage Commission and Delta State University and designated a Mississippi Freedom House. Explore this and five more houses that shaped the civil rights movement—link in bio. 📷 Brandon Holland for Mellon Foundation

Honored to share two recent pieces with Mellon Foundation. I reflect on photographing the Mississippi Freedom Houses, places of refuge during the Civil Rights Movement. In Gulfport, I spent time with Deidra Dunn-Pleasant at her family home, where her father, Dr. Felix Dunn, cared for his community under constant threat. Links in bio.

Sharing a few photos from my coverage of Essence Fest for @nytimes . Growing up in New Orleans, Essence has always been part of the fabric of summer, so getting to document it in this way felt really special. The weekend was full of so much joy and creativity, and so many familiar faces from across different chapters of my life. many thanks to @christyyyyk and @yolamzizi for the opportunity and collaboration🙏🏾

beijing, shanghai, and guilin

around china pt 2

around china

shanghai squares

Sharing some new work from a recent story for @guardian , reporting from Reserve, LA. I spent time with Robert Taylor, who has spent years fighting against toxic pollution in his community—an area known as ‘Cancer Alley’—and now faces yet another uphill battle as environmental protections are rolled back. Robert recently lost his wife, Zenobia, after years of health struggles he believes were tied to pollution in the area. Our time together was quiet and reflective—we talked about family history, life in different parts of the country, and the changes he’s witnessed over the decades. Grateful, always, to help tell stories like these—stories that are so close to my heart. Link in bio