Many Photographers Have Been Nominated for a Pulitzer. This One Was Nominated for a Grammy.

This feature is part of CULTURED‘s 2026 Young Photographers list. This year’s list spotlights 14 artists aged 30 or younger from around the globe who are united by a relentless curiosity and an understanding that the photographer’s most important job is identifying what deserves to be seen.

AGE: 28
BASED IN: New York

Brian Karlsson’s photographs are anything but static: subjects leap, punch, and roll their eyes back in their heads. In 2023, his collaborative photo book with the band They Might Be Giants earned the artist a Grammy nomination.

What’s your creative philosophy?

I walk around all day picking up playing cards. When I get home, I shuffle them into a brand-new deck we’ve never seen before and deal myself a hand of solitaire.

What’s the ideal situation for you to make work?

As a stranger in a strange town.

What questions do your photographs ask?

I hope my photographs provide answers rather than ask questions. They are direct transcriptions of reality, objective truths.

Who are your visual influences?

My memories, my dreams, and daily life. A less esoteric answer would be Jeff Mermelstein, Daniel Arnold, Jason Nocito, and in a different way, David Lynch, or Paul Bowles.

What do you want to see more of in photography today? Less of?

I think flashing a stranger a foot from their face is rude and obnoxious. I guess someone had to do it in the photography canon—this was taken care of by people like Bruce Gilden, Richard Sandler, Mark Cohen, et al. And they did it well. But in the modern day, it would be perfectly fine if we saw no more photographs like that.

Meet more of CULTURED‘s 2026 Young Photographers:

Photographer Alec Dai Once Shot a Series Naked, in a Basement, Under a ‘Weird Portrait of Jesus’

Photographer Arielle Gray Wants Her Subjects to Be Unafraid of Softness

For Queer Photographer Ben Jastremski, ‘Every Image I Make Is the Permission I Was Never Given’

War Still Rages in Ukraine. Photographer Conall Kearney Is There to Document It.

Meet the 30-Year-Old Mongolian Photographer Documenting Changing Borders

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