Grade AhlbomWHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS

Travels to Los Angeles, Reykjavík, Tokyo, and New York reaffirmed the role of photography as a means of access to people and places that Grace Ahlbom otherwise might not have. The ability to use the camera as a key into the private world of musicians, skaters, and others was made clear through this particular series. To capture the essence of those people through documenting their ephemeral manifestations of idleness, to Ahlbom, meant capturing their truest self.