Carolyn Drake / Andres Gonzalez: I’ll Let You Be in My Dreams if I Can Be in Yours
In “If I let you into my dreams, will you let me into yours” photographers Carolyn Drake and Andres Gonzalez take viewers on an evocative journey along the US-Mexico border. As partners in both life and art, Drake and Gonzalez capture the landscape and spirit of this region through a series of dual perspectives, creating a rich and layered portrayal of life along the border. The two photographers traverse towns, rivers, and roads, photographing shared subjects from their own vantage points, lending a mix of spontaneity and intentionality to each scene.
This body of work captures the intersections of human connection amid a place often defined by division. Through pairings of images that feel at once serendipitous and deliberate, Drake and Gonzalez invite viewers to see the complexities of balance and belonging. Their images are rooted in the personal, drawing from their family histories of migration, while also offering a universal commentary on the nuances of identity and place.
Rather than adhering to a single, linear narrative, Drake and Gonzalez’s collaborative project presents the borderlands as a multifaceted space—where past and present meet, where separation and connection coexist, and where identity is as fluid as the landscapes they traverse. This dynamic collection challenges preconceptions and celebrates the intricate, often unpredictable nature of human relationships across divides.
About the Authors
Carolyn Drake works on long-term photo projects, examining and reimagining historical narratives with a creative lens. Her practice emphasizes collaboration, blending photography with sewing, collage, and sculpture, aiming to blur boundaries between author and subject, reality and imagination. Born in California, she studied Media/Culture and History at Brown University in the early ’90s. After graduation, she worked in New York as an interactive designer before turning to photography at 30. Between 2007 and 2013, Drake lived in Istanbul, developing Two Rivers and Wild Pigeon (both self-published), works that engage with Central Asian culture and Uyghur life in China. Back in the U.S., she has focused on projects “close to home,” such as Knit Club, Isolation Therapy, and Next Door. Her Men Untitled project (2023) earned the Henri Cartier-Bresson award, followed by I’ll Let You Be in My Dreams If I Can Be in Yours (Mack, 2024), a collaboration with her partner Andres Gonzalez on the Mexico/US border. Represented by Magnum Photos and Yancey Richardson Gallery, Drake lives in Vallejo, California, with support from numerous fellowships and awards.
Andres Gonzalez, a visual artist in Vallejo, California, has published two books: Some(W)Here (2012) and American Origami (2019), the latter winning the Light Work Photo Book Award and shortlisted for the Paris Photo-Aperture Book Awards. He has received support from the Pulitzer Center, the Alexia Foundation, and is a Fulbright Fellow. Gonzalez’s work has been featured in exhibitions at institutions like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Stiftung Reinbeckhallen in Berlin, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, where American Origami was adapted into a theatrical performance with Columbia College and the Tectonic Theater Project.
