Meet Landry Major

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Landry Major a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Landry, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

On Christmas Day 2023 my beloved son Cash died. He was 29 years old and my only child.

This collaboration came out of the need to honor the relationship between my son and I.
To show how even after he left the physical world we are still connected.

In the early days of my grief a friend reached out and asked if I would be interested in speaking to my son through a true medium and I said yes.

Our conversations over the last year and a half have changed the way I see our time here and what comes after we shed our bodies.

The series title is from a line my son Cash wrote in a notebook I found after his passing, Standing Still in a Constant State of Departure.

Cash and I shared the language of photography and a love of light. We were each others first pair of eyes on new work. My son captured his struggles and was always looking for light in the darkness. I was looking for the poetry in the everyday world. We intersected in a place of light and beauty.

I found my purpose in telling his story, our story, through double exposure images that combine his images and mine.They are a combination of his collidion wet plate images, Polaroids, silver gilded on vellum and film images layered to tell our story.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I have been a professional photographer for 30 years. Originally I was an editorial and advertising photographer specializing in portraits. I loved capturing the essence of who a person was in a single image for The New York Times and other magazines.

Ten years ago I segued into fine art photography. I spent 8 years working on a series Keepers of the West focusing on small family run ranches in a small valley in Montana. Documenting the simpler way of life that has been so much a part of the American history. This series was printed in silver gelatin prints and won many awards, including a solo exhibition at The Center For Photographic Art in Carmel. It was the last thing Cash attended with me and he was incredibly proud. He rallied to be there, which I am forever grateful for.

After my son Cash passed a year and a half ago, my life stopped. I found meaning 6 months later in telling his story that continues into where he is now. I am a willing messenger of hope to those who have lost their loved ones. To share the message that they are still very much with us and watching over us. I strive every day to learn to hear my son better.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

When you go to photograph someone you have ideas of what you would like to capture. It’s important to be open to the beauty and nuance that unfolds that you might not have planned on. You must be open to seeing and learning always. It’s important to learn the technical skills of photography, but then you need to see with your inner sense and let the technical go.

You must be curious about your subject matter, stay interested. For several years I specialized in portraits of the top boxers and MMA fighters. I knew nothing about the sports, but was interested in the human beings that were drawn to train and compete. I was still making portraits of people, not just fighter portraits.

Photography has so many paths, there is always something new to learn. I am in love with alternative processes now.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

After my son Cash died I wasn’t sure I wanted to still be in the world. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer Valentines Day of 2025. There was no family history or causation so it was a surprise. The doctors expected me to cry, but I was just angry. How could I be expected to handle more… But it also made me realize that I still want to live, that there is more I want to be here for. I had surgery in April, but it made me aware that my life is not guaranteed.

I want to love my people and dogs as long as I can. I’d like to explore my art in new ways. There is magic around us if we are quiet enough to see and hear it. I am on a quest to hear the other side better, and to help parents who have lost their children to know they are still in relationship. I have no worries about other peoples perceptions, it a truth that I now hold dear.

I am working on making a book out of the series Standing Still in a Constant State of Departure that combines Cash’s work and mine. It truly is a labor of great love. It is an honor to share his story and one he is proud I am doing. Our series was just selected for Critical Mass Top 200 which makes me incredibly happy. It’s a gift that I can give Cash.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.landrymajor.com
• Instagram: @landrymajorart

Image Credits

Landry Major and Cash Kasper