Niall O'Brien
Three Cities explores Santa Clara’s ‘Silicon Valley’ through a series of intuitive landscapes and portraits, shot in and around the county’s seven-mile long Bascom Avenue.
Three Cities explores Santa Clara’s ‘Silicon Valley’ through a series of intuitive landscapes and portraits, shot in and around the county’s seven-mile long Bascom Avenue.
During his time there, O’Brien was struck by the banality of a place that prides itself on being a world leader in innovation. Although no stranger to the US and its economic landscape, he was affected by the enormous inequality that exists amongst Bascom’s residents – some of America’s wealthiest and most impoverished, living side by side.
Despite this he found moments of remarkable beauty in and around the valley, over his many visits to the area. He also found beauty in the people that inhabit Bascom Avenue. Blake, a homeless man, and his girlfriend Dana became incredibly important to O’Brien, who began to see the world from their point of view.
The photographer’s naturalistic and voyeuristic imagery is the result of a very personal process, which has historically seen him embed himself within ‘tribes’, whether they be young punks in the suburbs of London and Berlin, or the isolationist communities of conservative middle-America. Here he was drawn specifically to Blake and Dana’s stories and their surroundings – spending months getting to know them and their routines, documenting their turmoil and their triumphs, as well as the streets that they call home.
Three Cities is an exquisite portrait – of a place, and of its people. It is a deeply insightful and ultimately respectful look at the lives of two unfortunate yet optimistic individuals.
For further information please contact info@sidmotiongallery.co.uk / b@bakulpatki.com
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Niall O’Brien (b. 1979, Dublin, Ireland) studied fine art photography at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin, Ireland. Niall has exhibited extensively internationally.
Recent solo exhibitions have included: ‘Good Rats’, which was shown at Sunday Inventory Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland (2014); Upon Space, Berlin, Germany (2012) and No 10 Gallery, New York, USA
(2011). O’Brien has contributed to group exhibitions since 2003 in New York, Belfast, Amsterdam, Dublin, Singapore, London and Glasgow.
O’Brien has produced two publications, ‘Porn Hurts Everyone’, Footfall (Self Published, 2017) and
‘Good Rats’ (Pau Wau Publications, 2011).
