Brett Lloyd: Candyland

Brett Lloyd’s tribute to his friend and mentor, the photographer David Armstrong, whom he lived with along with a group of young artists in Armstrong’s brownstone they named Candyland in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn in the early 2010s.

“Waking up in Candyland was comparable to waking up from a dream you were not quite sure you were out of. The cabinet of dolls heads at the foot of the stairs when you went to bed had now climbed up three flights during the night. The shop mannequin that greeted guests by the front door was now positioned directly outside your bedroom. A Billie Holiday record that had been started at some point during the night was now skipping repeatedly somewhere in one of the rooms, it didn’t seem to be bothering anyone. The house stirred in the night.

His gracious encouragement towards me and other young people who he provided a home for was as valuable a gesture as the house itself.” BL