A Stark Rendering of a Life Incomplete

A conversation with Adrian Brandon, author of the Stolen Series.

I was first introduced to Adrian Brandon’s Stolen Series when Viola Davis shared an image on her instagram page. Stolen is a portrait series dedicated to Black people who have been killed by the police. Adrian uses time as a medium to define how long each portrait is colored in; one year of life equals one minute of color. Adrian started the series in February 2019. I didn’t see it until 2020 when most of America was raw from the murder of George Floyd and so many others.

George Floyd — 46 minutes of color for 46 years of life. Adrian Brandon started this portrait series February 2019 to honor lives lost during police interactions. Francis Gagnon, founder of Voilà, describes the work as very powerful. He shared, “It shows the faces of these people, not bars and dots, and forces us to slow down and observe them.

Adrian’s work was a reminder that the killing of Black people by the police was not new, it was just a rare moment where the murder was captured on video for the world to see. A time where most of the world was sheltering in place due to a global pandemic. I wanted to reach out to Adrian. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to ask or say. I just knew I needed to speak to him. So I reached out and was excited to get a response. I told him how much I admired his work and wanted to interview him. We scheduled a zoom call and then I poured myself into research. More people needed to hear about Adrian’s work and I was going to play a part in that.

Meet Adrian