About

My name is Alison and I was born and have lived and worked in London for most of my life.  I am currently working for Thomson Reuters based in Canary Wharf (although not in the photography department), but also spend a lot of time in the Lake District in Cumbria.

I've always loved to take photos and I finally bit the bullet in December 2010 when I bought my first DLSR – a Nikon D5000.  I then hardly used it for a year and a half, being scared of dropping it, breaking, it damaging it, not using it properly, and so on.   Finally I took a beginner’s course in February 2012, and then soon after started studying for a Photography degree course with the Open College of Arts.   Since then I haven’t looked back!

This is officially my second module for the OCA BA (Hons) degree course in Photography, having previously completed and passed The Art of Photography, and half-completed Digital Photographic Practice (and then swapped to this Context and Narrative module).

My interests are still developing and they bounce around between landscape, wildlife, travel, urban, and conceptual work, but what really excites me is Street Photography - “the decisive moment” – constantly looking for resonance, twists, turns, juxtapositions, irony, comedy, and the unexpected in everyday life.  My biggest influences in this field (in no particular order) are Maciej Dakowicz (reportage and street), Melanie Einzig, Dave Mason, Shin Noguchi, Matt Stuart, Nils Jorgensen, David Solomons and David Gibson.  I also recently got to know the hilarious work of Dougie Wallace.

As for wildlife photography - my other big fascination - the photographers I admire the most are Jasper Doest, Michael Nichols and David Lloyd.  And everyone that enters Wildlife Photographer of the Year!

My goals for this module, apart from improving my technical and creative skills, are to identify a clear path for the future, maybe in photojournalism or reportage?  With travel?  Or will I make it as a  wildlife photographer (need to progress beyond pigeons and puffins though....)?  You see the difficulty - I'm still on that journey of discovery - probably not yet even at the crossroads....fortunately, I don't have to decide just yet!

With this module I will start using a full-frame DLSR Nikon D810 for the first time with two lenses: 24-70mm and 70-200mm.   

I am a (now lapsed) member of the London Independent Photography Group attending Crossing Lines satellite group.  I am also contributing to the Bleeding London project during the summer of 2014, with particular focus on square 172 and the edges around Heathrow.

For other non academic projects see my Flickr albums.
 

ALL IMAGES ON THIS WEBSITE AND LINKED WEBSITES ARE COPYRIGHT PROTECTED AND MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT MY PERMISSION