ABOUT

Ashley Brasier

I made my first camera from an oatmeal canister in sixth grade. Developing those pinhole prints in a darkroom, watching a leaf slowly appear on the paper, felt like magic. I've been taking pictures ever since: on a Canon point-and-shoot through high school, then a Nikon DSLR in college, and now mostly my iPhone.

I’ve always photographed for my own enjoyment, as a kind of visual note-taking: a way to hold onto the feeling of a place, capture a particular symmetry, or an unlikely moment. Looking back, photos often reveal more than I saw when I initially took the photo, and sometimes they take on deeper meaning as they capture a particular season that has since moved on.

Photography is ultimately a form of play with what's hiding in plain sight: light, geometry, beauty. But more than anything, it's a practice of gratitude for what's around me, and a reminder of how small and connected we are. Every photograph is still a little like that leaf in the darkroom: something that was there all along, slowly coming into view.

Self-portrait of Ashley reflected in glass behind an Etruscan sculpture
Self Portrait, The Etruscans, Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 2026.

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