Russ Bray

My name is Russ Bray (b. 2001) and I am a documentary photojournalist pursuing a master’s in journalism at the University of Missouri. I originally began at Missouri State University as a fine arts photographer, focusing on longer, conceptual projects about ideas: family ties, human desire, or even the smartphone. This education culminated in a project on my mother and the trailer park I grew up in, documenting these nostalgic spaces of my childhood home over several months. It truly cemented my love for long-form documentary work.

The project also allowed me to better understand myself and use my upbringing as an aspect in the work I want to make. The gap year after I graduated led me to go to workshops like WKU’s Mountain Workshops and Eddie Adams. Knowing I needed a full education within the field, this led me to pursue a degree in journalism at Mizzou in 2024.

I now make work focusing on and highlighting social issues like class disparity, marginalized communities and environmental concerns. With these topics, the goal of my work is to show the unique facets of each individual I work with and photograph. The work I make and hope to continue making in the future is a counter to our country’s general statistics, to aid those people in being seen as more than a number.
This semester, I’m working on my master’s project, a photo essay collaborating with the Ellis family living in a trailer park in Columbia, Missouri. The project is being made with the intention to see what it means to not just live in America, but to survive.