"Images can describe, abstract, interpret, but they are not absolute"

- Carolyn Drake

b. 1971

USA

Based in San Francisco, USA

Member

Available for commissions
& assignments

Carolyn Drake works on long term photo-based projects seeking to interrogate dominant historical narratives and create alternative and imaginative interpretations of reality. Her work explores community and the interactions within it, as well as the barriers and connections “between people, between places and between ways of perceiving”.

Drake was born in California and studied Media/Culture and History in the early 1990s at Brown University. Following her graduation from Brown, in 1994, Drake moved to New York and worked as an interactive concept designer for many years before departing to engage with the physical world through photography. Drake lived in Istanbul for nearly a decade, where she developed personal projects and worked on commissions in Turkey, Ukraine, Central Asia, and China. She was drawn to working in communities whose identities resist domination, where there is a drive to self define.

Drake returned to the US in 2014 and is now based in Vallejo, California, from where she is currently making work that playfully upends perceptions of gender, community, and safety in two American communities.

Drake is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, the Lange-Taylor Prize, a Lightwork residency, and a Fulbright fellowship, among other awards.

She became an associate of Magnum Photos in 2017.

Carolyn became a Magnum Nominee in 2015.

Read More

Selected works

Environment

Two Rivers

Carolyn Drake

A photographic journey along the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers tracing the shifting political, social, and geographical landscapes

Open story
Stay in touch
Monthly updates on the latest assignments, photographer projects and collaborations with brands.
Know when our quarterly 7-day square print sale is coming.
Learn about online and offline exhibitions, photography fairs, gallery events, plus fine print news and activities, on a monthly basis.
Get fortnightly tips and advice articles, find out about the latest workshops, free online events and on-demand courses.
Be the first to know about recent Magnum Shop drops. From new books and limited editions, to special offers, you can find it all on the weekly Magnum Shop newsletter.
Stay up to date every Thursday with Magnum photographers’ activities, new work, stories published on the Magnum website, and the latest offerings from our shop.