JACOB LAMBERT BROOKS
Jacob is an American born photographer and director of photography. He’s spent much of the past twelve years traveling for a variety of commercial, editorial, and documentary projects. In that time, he’s photographed on assignments and for personal projects in over 50 countries and has taught photography workshops in Iceland, Vancouver, The Republic of Georgia, Australia, Hong Kong, and across the U.S. He’s created original content for SONY records, CMT, TUI Travel, Allure, as well as many small, boutique brands. His work has been featured in a long list of international publications, including The New York Times, Rangefinder, Condé Nast, Whalebone, and many more.
He believes strongly in the process that traditional photographic film demands and has been committed throughout his career to shooting on medium format and 35mm film.
The Dreams of Vishnu is an on-going photo essay made across India over the past seven years. On his first trip in 2016, Jacob was quickly captured by the spiritual overtones that color so much of daily life across the subcontinent. The ancient Hindu myth in which the universe is merely a breath in the dream of Vishnu struck a unique chord with Jacob, posing for him the fundamental question that rests on the heart of so many - If there is a God, why is this his dream, a world where so many suffer? Unlike the wealthy empires of the west, the suffering in India has nowhere to hide. In the midst of it, however, Jacob has witnessed an undeniable and profound sense of beauty, glimmers of light piercing through even the darkest of human suffering. The images in this series explore this dream, this life, the beauty and the pain often juxtaposed in a single frame of everyday moments, and the irony of a God who would dream it all and be worshiped for it.
Shadows of the Saints is an on-going black and white photo essay that tells the story of spiritual life in the shadow of La Iglesia de Santo Tomás and the surrounding areas of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. The story, like most, is complicated, a spiritual cocktail of ancient, Mayan traditions (as best as they are remembered) mixed with a muddled history of catholicism in the region, and a modern influx of charismatic, evangelicals that surged at the end of a decades-long civil war in 1996. Jacob first witnessed this spiritual divergence almost twenty years ago when he traveled to the region as a volunteer for a medical and dental NGO. To this day, a remarkable amount of medical volunteers offer their services free of charge to many of Guatemala’s poorest communities, often lead by faith-based groups who feel a strong conviction to serve the poor. In 2021 and 2023, Jacob was able to return to Guatemala with the intent of telling this unique visual, narrative story.