CASANOVA FRANKENSTEIN -urban photographer's photostream

Brandon J. Sanford was raised in South Minneapolis by his Mother and Grandmother. Since 2002 he has worked as a Case Manager with drug users and is currently working as an Street Outreach Worker with the homeless.
He started taking pictures in 2002 with a junky point and shoot, which now has been replaced by a Sony a550 with a Sigma 28mm 1:1.8 prime lens. The first picture he took was a close up of the gold Flying Lady atop a Cadillac Classic grill. "I haven’t had a lot of exposure to fine art. My Mom only used a Polaroid, and I didn’t have the type of family that went to museums on the weekends. It was more likely that I'd be riding in the back seat of my Mom's shiny red El Dorado while she went out to party with the girls."
CASANOVA FRANKENSTEIN photos juxtapose the beauty and the grime of living in the city. The runaway youth's back alley bedroom, decorated with graffiti and a neatly tucked Battlestar Galactica bed sheet. Two passengers riding a city bus at night, one wearing a white turban, the other a black Mohawk amidst a blurry florescent glow.
He sees a Minneapolis that merges street culture, money, self-destruction, alleys, pristine white sneakers, gold fronts at the shelter, hope, Tom Waits, check cashing joints, buying things, selling things, renewal, hip hop, dirt, plastic, doorways, isolation, graffiti, love, and irony. "I remember mom in capes, fur trimmed hats, gold jewelry, bootleg Gucci bags, and tall stiletto heels, all perfectly matched. I also remember cockroaches in my cereal bowl. And waking up so cold I'd wrap up in a blanket and lay on the bathroom floor, using the heat from the hot water in the tub to warm up."
Brandon has two teenage children and they all live in a haunted ramshackle house in South Minneapolis.