A San Francisco native, Brian L. Frank (b. 1979) has created social documentary projects across the Americas focusing on cultural identity, social inequality, violence, workers rights and the environment.

Most recently, he was awarded a grant by For Freedoms, in collaboration with National Geographic, to continue work on faith and labor in the California central valley migrant worker community. He is also a Professor of Journalism and a Catchlight Global-Fellow. His work with Catchlight, The Pulitzer Center and The Marshall Project has focused on documenting mass incarceration’s effects on minority communities and visuals-based, education curriculum development and instruction in juvenile detention facilities and communities disproportionately affected by mass incarceration.

His 2-year project, Downstream, Death of the Colorado, is held in the permanent collection at the United States Library of Congress and was recognized by POYi with the Global Vision Award. His work has been recognized with numerous other awards from both national and international press organizations.

After completing the Journalism program at SFSU, he worked primarily for The Wall Street Journal from 2008 – 2014 and currently focuses on long-term documentary magazine features in California, the American Southwest, and Mexico.