Pat Martin is an American photographer, based in Los Angeles. In 2019 he won the

Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize is an annual photographic portrait prize awarded by the National Portrait Gallery in London. It was established in 2003 as the Schweppes Photographic Portrait Prize. In the years 2006 and 2007 it was ...

for portraits of his mother.

Life and work

Martin grew up in

Mar Vista Mar Vista is a neighborhood on the Westside of Los Angeles, California. In 1927, Mar Vista became the 70th community to be annexed to Los Angeles. It was designated as an official city neighborhood in 2006. History Mar Vista was called Ocean Par ...

near

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

West Los Angeles West Los Angeles is an area within the city of Los Angeles, California. The residential and commercial neighborhood is divided by the Interstate 405 freeway, and each side is sometimes treated as a distinct neighborhood, mapped differently by di ...

, California. His mother struggled with

addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use o ...

throughout Martin's life. Knowing that she did not have long to live, from 2016 to 2018 he used portraiture to reconnect with her before her death. That series, titled ''Goldie (Mother),'' was described by

Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan (born 1959) is an Irish singer, songwriter, and arranger who leads the avant-pop band the High Llamas, which he founded in 1992. He is also known for being one half of the songwriting duo (with Cathal Coughlan) in Microdisney and f ...

in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' as "searingly honest portraits that, even without the narrative behind them, have an emotional heft rare in contemporary photography." Since 2016 Martin's photography has also been of other family members.

Awards

*2019: First prize (£15,000),

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

for 2 photographs from ''Goldie (Mother)''

Group exhibitions

*''Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize,'' National Portrait Gallery, London, 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Pat Photographers from California 21st-century American photographers People from Los Angeles Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Year of birth missing (living people)