There is a famous quote by American writer Susan Sontag: “To collect photographs is to collect the world.” It’s almost as if she was talking about Brendan George Ko’s (b. 1986) Scrapbook series. The visual storyteller, who was born in Toronto and raised across Hawai’i, New Mexico and Texas, sees images as supplementary to the stories they represent. “I lived half my life moving throughout America, with endless road trips, and faces of so many dear human beings … I see every photograph that I take, as a document: of a memory, person, time, place or feeling.” For Ko, taking pictures is a way to bottle up life’s moments, and to savour the instances that are worth remembering. Portraits of friends, often bathed in light and shadow, meet high-quality close-ups of foliage that set the scene. Ko’s photographs are often rendered in enthralling saturated colour palettes, offering a crispness that invites viewers along for the ride. brendangeorgeko.com