Elijah Barrett

About

American, b. 1987   —   Elijah Barrett's current work consists of large-scale, black and white portraits of young people. Barrett is interested in playfully confusing the notions of subject and photographer, the scene and the behind-the-scenes, realism and self-consciousness, coolness and affect, as well as past and present. Far from the luxury condos and tasting menus of America's hip cities, this work takes humble backyards, public parks, and alleys as its setting. The photographs, based in our world, but fictive in nature, contain undertones of the angst and ennui felt by a generation of young people to whom many promises were made, but few were kept. Elijah Barrett studied photography at Yale University (BA, 2009) and the University of Hartford (MFA, 2021). His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, the San Angelo Museum of Fine Art (San Angelo, TX), and Spellerberg Projects (Lockhart, TX). Elijah Barrett lives and works in Nashville, TN.