About
yep, that's me.
Photographer, Non-profit director, Publisher of The Salem Project, Partner to Jeani, Parent to Liam.
Currently in Salem, Oregon. You might know William from RI, NYC, MN, MI, Portland, OR, Tokyo, China, Philippines, Indonesia, Vancouver, BC or you might not know him at all (yet.)
“In person, Bragg is a little bit reminiscent of an optimistic polar bear — he’s kind of burly, with silver-flecked hair and a gravelly voice, and is impervious to cold, a holdover from the days when he used to break up ice on the Hudson River for the Coast Guard.”
Statesman Journal, December 27, 2009
“There are a couple of one-man cottage industries in town trying to make something happen on the cultural front. One of them is photographer William Bragg — a well-traveled early 40-something, calmed-down former misfit who is now raising his son with his partner here in Salem.”
Emily Grosvenor, Desperately Seeking Salem
Photography:
I was into photography at a young age, but gave it up as it was interfering my ability to just live & experience. It took a solo backpacking trip through northern China that started on my 30th birthday (flew into Beijing airport on my birthday) to rekindle my passion for photography.
It was this experience that allowed me to balance taking photos while still experiencing life as it was happening.
I tend towards a documentary approach. I always have a camera with me. As people who know me personally, I am an extrovert. I can and will talk to anybody, anywhere. Once I get to know someone, I have this need to photograph them. I can’t help it.
It’s one way I choose to engage with my surroundings. Whether it’s noticing a space or place, and taking the time to document it, or using the camera to initiate contact with those around me, the camera mediates those experiences. The majority of the people in my photos know they are being photographed. More often than not I’ve already entered into a discussion with them – sometimes as brief as just asking their permission.
I am not trying to necessarily capture a ‘secret moment’. I acknowledge the camera and it’s impact upon the particular relation I am capturing. But that doesn’t lessen the ‘capture’ – that moment is as real as any other, there’s just a camera present as well.
And that camera, my actions as a ‘photographer’ and the ‘subjects’ are entered into a relationship, however brief – interacting with one another, which I will eventually (re)present visually. How the ‘subject’ represents or remembers the experience will undoubtedly be quite different. I hope that it will prove to have been, at least, a little bit interesting.
Basically, I wasn’t just being facetious with a previous artist statement that I’ve used elsewhere:
Some stuff I like, some I don’t.
I like photography.
My Mom taught me to share.
I like to share my photography.
I love my Mom.
______________________________________________
From my Willamette Academy life:
William Bragg, Associate Director of Willamette Academy, adds a diversity of experience to the Academy staff and students. A former U.S. Coast Guard rescue diver and electronic technician, Will continues to demonstrate the value of real-world experience to Academy students and offers a unique perspective to WA staff. A native of Rhode Island, Will has since traveled significantly, doing postgraduate work in geography at the University of British Columbia and living in Japan for four years where he helped establish an international education program. Will is a first-generation college graduate who has contributed to Willamette Academy for over 5 years.
Willamette Academy is a five-year college access program for creative, intelligent, low-income students from families with low (formally) educated backgrounds. Our students are nominated by the Salem-Keizer school system from every public seventh grade middle school in the district. We receive approximately 120 student nominations annually, of which we interview around 60 families, and select only 28-32 students. This program is committed to removing the obstacles that hamper our students’ abilities to successfully attend college. These students are in the program from the summer before their 8th grade until they graduate high school.
