Brayden Kowalczuk - EXPOSURE EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHERS SHOWCASE

Sequestered in my home for almost 3 years, the series 'I Used to be Agoraphobic' employs photography as a sketchbook to explore why.

Small tasks like getting coffee nearby were impossible, and communicating with strangers was unthinkable. The threat of panic attacks was a constant, and a normal life felt out of reach. Years of professional help and medication since my agoraphobia intermingle with a passion for art and design towards a sense of normalcy.

'I Used to be Agoraphobic' explores an unravelling of my childhood with portraits of strangers, still lives, and unfamiliar landscapes.

BIOGRAPHY

Brayden Kowalczuk is an author/illustrator currently working in the film and television industry. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

After over a decade of storytelling as a character designer, Kowalczuk has only recently picked up the camera to illustrate personal histories, strangers' stories, and as a new way to explore his day to day.

Kowalczuk interrogates the exchange between photographer and stranger—therapeutic at times, dance-like, and ripe with potential experience. Through this exploration of the medium, he finds the answers to personal struggles of anxiety and recovering agoraphobia.