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Brandon Marquette Williams – Artist Biography

Brandon Marquette Williams is a fine artist and photographer based in the Chicago area, working primarily in analog photography, watercolor, and mixed media. He is the founder of October Coast Art Studios, through which he offers portrait photography services using 4x5 large format cameras, live event art documentation, and commissioned fine art work. Currently completing his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a full merit scholarship, Williams has received recognition including multiple Dean’s Merit Awards and an OxBow School of Art fellowship.

His artistic practice centers on themes of Black fatherhood, transformation, and inherited legacy, explored through traditional darkroom processes including wet plate collodion photography and large format film work. Williams has developed a distinctive ink-and-bleach technique alongside his watercolor painting and screenprinting practices. His conceptual framework of “October Coast” draws from the diverse American landscapes that have shaped his artistic vision, from the Kansas prairie where he was raised to Alaska’s Inside Passage, Oregon’s coast, and Chicago’s urban environment.

Williams’s work has been exhibited at notable Chicago venues including Zhou B Art Gallery, Fat Cat Gallery, and other spaces throughout the city. His practice emphasizes the significance of analog processes as metaphors for transformation, embracing the unpredictability inherent in traditional photographic methods as a reflection of generational change and personal evolution.

In addition to his studio practice, Williams is actively engaged in community-focused projects that explore art’s role in placemaking and social connection. He maintains a commitment to making fine art photography accessible through his portrait services while developing ambitious public art initiatives in Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods.

Williams completed his undergraduate studies while raising three children and maintains a studio practice that bridges commercial photography services with conceptual fine art exploration. His work continues to investigate the intersections of family, memory, place, and the technical traditions of analog image-making.

Contact:

studios@octobercoast.art
(312) 478-5980

Art Vending Machines Coming Soon…

-October Coast Art-

**Brandon Marquette Williams – Artist Biography**

Contact:

Brandon Marquette Williams – Artist Biography