Brian L. Frank

Location: San Francisco, California

A San Francisco native, Brian Frank studied photojournalism at SFSU, where he was surrounded and inspired by a group of amazing colleagues that pushed him to this day. During his university years, he often found himself drawn to take a semester away from school and work on social documentary projects throughout Latin America, mainly focusing on workers rights, and social injustice. Frank’s inspiration for this was always his parents. His mother is a first-generation immigrant from Trinidad, and his father is a paramedic and staunch union activist. During a long break from school, he drove an old 1972 VW bug across Mexico and landed in Mexico City, where he was based until Aug 2009.

Frank was awarded the 2010 Global Vision Award by POYi for “Downstream, The Death of the Colorado” and won the 2009 NPPA Domestic News Picture Story for “La Guerra Mexicana.” He has also placed second overall in the Hearst Photojournalism Championship for 2009, as well as winning best single image and is a 2008 Eddie Adams Workshop alumni.

He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The San Francisco Chronicle, and his work has appeared in Esquire, Newsweek, TIME, Photo District News, The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News, Global Post, and many other publications and wire services.

Watch a video interview with Brian L. Frank.

website: http://www.brianfrankphoto.com/
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Brian L. Frank: Slideshow | Grid View
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  • Swine Flu empties the most populated city in the western hempisp
  • Swine Flu empties the most populated city in the western hempisp
  • A child plays in puddles behind a MAS (Movimiento Al Socialismo, or movement towards socialism) presidential campaign rally displaying the Bolivian flag in El Alto, a barrio of La Paz which will soon outgrow the capital in population as indigenous peoples flock to the city in search of work.
  • A dog stolls through the courtyard of a school used for a polling place in the 2009 Bolivian Presidential elections.
  • Swine Flu empties the most populated city in the western hempisp
  • La Paz Senator Martha Poma Luque sits in a school in El Alto. "Under evo there is now school for adults allowing the indigenous population who never had the chance to learn to read or write, to study," said Poma Luque. The Senator is also a testament to the quickly changing political landscape in Bolivia, where the indigenous population have become better represented in the government of Evo Morales.
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  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
  • La Guerra Mexicana (The Mexican War)
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  • Power lines stretch from the Serra Prieto geothermal powerplant in Sonora Mexico. The United States purchases a large amount of power from the plant, which doesn't have to abide by the strict environmental standards imposed in the USA. Because of the lax Mexican regulation, the plant can provide power cheaply to its US consumers.
  • The Colorado River, a waterway that stretches over 1400 miles from its origins in the northwest United States to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico, is a dying waterway. The river is a shell of its former self as overpopulation, pollution, damning, global warming and apathy combine to deteriorate not only the natural habitat, but also degrade the cultures and economies that historically relied upon its bounty for life. The Serra Prieto geothermal power plant in Sonora Mexico allegedly pollutes a large swath of the Colorado River in Mexico. Downstream many people rely on the water to provide fish and water for agriculture.
  • As the water level of Lake Meade has dropped, residents have relocated, however a few long time residents remain, fishing it's receding waters.
  • An abandoned house boat sits idle at Lake Meade, NV.
  • A child plays alone in his suburban backyard near Phoenix, Arizona.
  • The old US Navy pool is used for skateboarding by local youngsters in Slab City, CA. Once a thriving tourist destination, as the Salton Sea dried up and became polluted, residents fled, and tourists didn't return, leaving the area inhabited by many living on the fringe of society.
  • Lake Meade, a reservoir fed by the Colorado, has seen its water level drop over 100 feet in current years as a combination of drought, increased agricultural use, a booming Las Vegas population and global warming have taken their toll.
  • Eleven year old Cucapa Indian fisherman Eduardo Saynz Gonzalez retrieves an empty net from the receding waters that were once abundant with fish in his village's traditional fishing grounds near Mexicali, Mexico. As the Colorado has run dry in the area, the Cucupa have been especially hard hit as they have watched the water disappear.
  • The tamed Colorado River irrigates both agricultural and suburban Arizona.
  • The Salton Sea in California's Imperial Valley was once a thriving tourist destination created by the Colorado River fed Salton Sea. But as the Sea died from pollution and dried out from the effects of global warming, inhabitants and tourists faded away like the waters. Slab City, which is a community of people who live on the fringe of society, sprung up amongst the ruins of what was once a military base in the area.