series
Inspired by my love of film noir and gangster movies, Like a Boss is a character study of the larger-than-life mob boss—powerful, intimidating, excessive, and sometimes absurd. The series plays with the familiar imagery of organized crime while following one fictional boss through his daily rituals.
The title was inspired by The Lonely Island’s Like a Boss.
Medium: Photography / Digital Photography
Series: Like a Boss
Model: Richard Vasquez
Artist: Brandon Lake
:Like A Boss
Set against a vast, barren landscape, The Alien documents Tora Kims performance In the Land of Pestilence I Will Go Forth and Prosper. Dressed in silver and moving through the desert terrain, she becomes a figure that seems both human and otherworldly—exploring isolation, survival, transformation, and the determination to endure in an unfamiliar world.
Medium: Photography / Performance Art
Series: The Alien
Performance: In the Land of Pestilence I Will Go Forth and Prosper
Performance Artist: Tora Kim
Photography: Brandon Lake
:The alien
Inspired by Dr. Octagon’s Earth People, this series explores the lives hidden behind the people we encounter every day. Before creating each portrait, I learned as much as I could about the subject—their history, personality, struggles, dreams, and ambitions. I then used those stories to transform their photograph, layering imagery and symbolism drawn from their life into the final piece.
Each portrait becomes a visual biography: part photography, part digital art, and part interpretation of the person behind the image.
Medium: Photography / Digital Art / Digital Collage
Series: Earth People
Inspiration: Earth People — Dr. Octagon
Photography & Digital Art: Brandon Lake
:Earth People
That drug-induced vibe you get when dawn is about to crack, the lights are still on, and everyone is still up trying to get down.
All of the Lights captures that strange point in the night when no one is quite ready for it to end. Neon, movement, altered states, and fleeting moments begin to blur together—the night becoming less about where you are and more about how it feels. Through light, color, motion, and portraiture, the images recreate that surreal haze where people, places, and memories start bleeding into one another, while everyone chases just a little more of the night.
Medium: Photography / Digital Art / Digital Collage
Series: All of the Lights
Photography & Digital Art: Brandon Lake
:All of the lights
Big Long Now is a series of self-portraits created during some of the more difficult periods of my life. Each image came after something had happened—a breakup, a death in the family, loss, anger, isolation, or one of those moments when life suddenly changed direction.
Rather than document the events themselves, I turned the camera toward myself and manipulated the photographs to reflect what was happening internally. Some became violent, some surreal, some darkly humorous, and others almost unrecognizable.
Taken together, the series became a visual record of what remained after the moment had passed—not necessarily what happened, but what it felt like to live through it.
Inspired by Big Long Now by Nirvana.
: Big long now
