Pat Martin is an American photographer, based in Los Angeles. In 2019 he won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize for portraits of his mother. [1]
Martin grew up in Mar Vista near Venice Beach, West Los Angeles, California. [2]
His mother struggled with addiction throughout Martin's life. [3] Knowing that she did not have long to live, from 2016 to 2018 he used portraiture to reconnect with her [3] before her death. [4] That series, titled Goldie (Mother), [5] was described by Sean O'Hagan in The Observer as "searingly honest portraits that, even without the narrative behind them, have an emotional heft rare in contemporary photography." [2] Since 2016 Martin's photography has also been of other family members. [6]