Fraenkel Gallery is pleased to present Mad River, a new series of photographs by Katy Grannan, made in Northern California’s Humboldt County, where the artist has recently been living and working. We first discovered Grannan’s work a few years ago at Paris Photo and have been captivated by her unique approach to portraiture ever since. It is a real pleasure to see her return with a new series in San Francisco.
In Mad River, Grannan captures individuals who reflect the independent and often secluded spirit of Humboldt County. By building relationships with her subjects, she explores the intersection of self-presentation and place, creating a collaborative, almost fictional portrait of the community. This is Grannan’s sixth exhibition at Fraenkel Gallery since 2006. A public reception with the artist will take place on Saturday, September 13, from 2–4pm, alongside the opening for Peter Hujar: The Gracie Mansion Show Revisited.
Dense forests and rural landscapes define Humboldt County, a place long known to attract nonconformists and creatives. Grannan began photographing there in 2023, finding subjects through Craigslist ads and local bulletin boards. The series includes a diverse array of individuals: a circus performer, a queer farmer, an actress, an autistic teenager, a man with his goat, and others—many connected through the area’s creative networks.
“When I moved to Humboldt, I didn’t know anyone. So my first instinct was to meet people through photography. I placed ads in Craigslist and on flyers that I hung around town. And I was really curious that in a place that’s known for its remoteness, who would be interested in being seen? I met an incredibly diverse, creative, and collaborative group of people: actors, musicians, artists, students, farmers, even their pets and livestock, their children. I’ve met a large number of people who identify as gender non-conforming. They’re unabashed and self-possessed and they know their value and their right to be seen, and seen respectfully. This aligns with my intentions and my belief in the importance and value of thoughtfully seeing.” Katy Grannan
Over the past two decades, Grannan’s approach to portraiture has evolved alongside changes in social media and digital photography. Her subjects now have an awareness of how they appear, which she channels into images that capture the subtle spaces between posed moments. Some photographs are set in a studio with a bright red carpet, flirting with fashion photography while subverting its conventions. Others appear in the forest, at the beach, or in the shallow waters of the Mad River, where the quiet landscapes frame the subjects while revealing the character of the place.
Katy Grannan is a photographer and filmmaker known for revealing, intimate portraits created through long-term collaboration with her subjects. Her work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Guggenheim, SFMOMA, and LACMA. She is also a frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and other publications. Grannan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MFA from Yale School of Art and has published eight monographs, including Model American, The Westerns, The Ninety Nine, and Hundreds of Sparrows. In 2016, she directed her first feature film, The Nine.
KATY GRANNAN – MAD RIVER September 4 – October 25, 2025
Further information, including a film featuring the artist, is available viafraenkelgallery.com 
Since 1979, Fraenkel Gallery has presented almost 400 exhibitions exploring photography and its relation to other media.