Rising Stars: Meet Brian Morris of El Segundo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Morris.

Hi Brian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My gift emerged early in life and was shaped through Northern California’s tech and art schools. Over the next four decades, I refined that foundation across the Bay Area, the mountains of Lake Tahoe, and ultimately the creative landscape of Los Angeles.

I became known for photographic image-making and visual storytelling, spending much of my career serving some of the most prestigious brands and families in the creative world. Along the way, I gathered the experiences, sacrifices, and personal stories that now define my life’s work.

Today, with time pressing forward and the realities of an uncertain creative economy, I find myself seeking a community of support—mentors who understand the long road I’ve walked and can clearly see the depth and value of the work it has produced.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid arrived and all but shut down my output and production services. With the loss of regular work and the breakdown of travel through my commercial connections, the focus turned back to my edits, studies, and training portals. The comeback has been rough—political turmoil, shifting public resources, and the slow return of funding have all created a difficult landscape to push through. During that time, a lot of shedding happened: clearing out expenses, clearing out drains on time and energy, and clearing out anything that no longer aligned with the work.

There is no exit strategy or backup plan. The only path has been to find a buyer for the most important art build-out created for a three-day show. An established artist and mentor was prepared to acquire the collection, but after two years of back-and-forth, the deal fell through. The result has been a deep sense of abandonment. Never before has the journey felt so close and yet so far from completing one of the most defining steps of an artistic life—finally having the support and the system necessary to produce the work collected and cultivated for decades, and to bring it into the world.

My spirit and my sense of worth have both been poured into this.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work began in the figurative arts movement of Northern California, where I fused painting, sculpture, fabrication, and design with the rise of digital creation. The focus has always been on documenting the forces that shape human life — consumption, power, control, religion, and the stories that define us.

In a world connected by constant information and the daily “doom scroll,” capturing honest modern narratives has become both vast and difficult. The noise is endless, the pace relentless. My work cuts through that overload, slowing the moment down so future generations have a truthful visual record of this era — the way Renaissance artists recorded theirs. What sets me apart is the blend of classical training, modern critique, and an unwavering commitment to telling the real story of us.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I don’t hand out advice. Guidance, for me, only works in real time — in the room, with the person in front of me. That’s the only way to avoid the detached superiority that comes with vague, blanket advice. Presence keeps things honest. What worked for me may or may not work for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://brianmorrisphotography.viewbook.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/b_morris_photo/

Image Credits
Property of “The Burning Bush….. Follow The Red Thread ” ©️ Brian Morris Photography 1991 ©️