THE ARTIST
Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Brian Goodman has been creating photography for over 50 years. He has always been captivated by the visual interplay between light, color and texture, which is reflected in his images that have spanned the globe, capturing stirring landscapes, intriguing characters, and thought-provoking studies.
As a child, Brian spent his time capturing the grandeur of the U.S. National Parks on family vacations throughout the western United States, using his Kodak Hawkeye Instamatic camera, now a part of his extensive photographic collection. As he graduated to his first 35mm camera, Brian began to explore his interests in fine art photography and photojournalism.
He studied photographic arts and graphic design at Bezalel Academy of Art
& Design in Jerusalem, Israel, and Otis/Parsons School of Art & Design in Los Angeles. In the early 1980’s, he began working for several large commercial photography studios in various capacities, allowing him to further hone his technical, management, and artistic skills.
Brian opened his first professional photo studio in 1987 in Pasadena, California, and later incorporated as Public Works Productions, Inc., moving his full-service commercial photography and design studio to a 6,000 square foot building in nearby Altadena.
Brian was an early adapter of the new digital technologies that were emerging in the early 1990’s. After he bought his first Apple Macintosh computer in 1985, it gradually became an integral part of the tools of his trade. In 1992, Brian was asked to demonstrate the premiere of the Leaf Digital Camera Back at the acclaimed international photographic trade show, Photokina, in Cologne, Germany. Public Works became a leader in the field of digital commercial photography as one of the first of its kind in California and across the United States.
While growing his commercial photography business over a 30-year span, Brian continued to develop his personal repertoire of fine art photographs. In 2015, he decided it was time to retire from the world of commercial photography and concentrate exclusively on creating fine art.
Over the years, Brian’s fine art photography has focused on many varied genres, including: scenic and landscape images; photo-journalistic portraits of life in the Middle East, Europe, North, Central, and South America; and historical photographic studies of the human experience.
His photographic compilation of images of the remnants of the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California's Owens Valley is one of those studies, and one that has haunted him for years. Creating "Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain" is part of his mission to expose the shocking treatment of the Japanese community and the U.S. government’s efforts to conceal its very existence from the American people, in the backdrop of the stark, stunning beauty of the desert and the imposing eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. "Manzanar: Their Footsteps Remain – 40 Years of Photography", published by Rainshadow Publishing, is now available as a beautiful 194 page, high-quality fine art coffee table book and also a traveling exhibit. For more information please visit, www.manzanarfootsteps.com
In this, his latest exploratory series, "Chasing Light Beams – the Grateful Dead collection", the band, the lights, video screens, the fans, all become subjects in this suite of work. In the "Solace of Space" collection, Brian creates original photographs of natural landscapes, seascapes, and cityscapes, transforming them into completely new interpretations of light, color and movement, evoking a sense of emotion, and imagination. To see the rest of the "Solace of Space" and the "Solace of Color" collection please visit
To see other photographic works by Brian Goodman, please visit www.bgoodmanphotography.com
Brian currently resides with his wife, Shira, and their black lab, Shooshi, in Port Townsend, Washington.