Meet Alison Conklin | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alison Conklin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alison, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I am an only child of two chemists. They would always have make shift dark rooms in their small apartment bathrooms and because of this I have a complete photographic history of their relationship, marriage, and my childhood. I grew up with a camera and slideshow premieres in the living room. When I was 14 my mom passed away suddenly. I was put in charge of the photos for her memorial service and was given boxes and boxes of photos, and binders filled with negatives and contact sheets. I began pouring over them. It was the first time I had ever seen many of the photos and what I fell in love with were the outtakes. The photos of my mom in the middle of a laugh with her eyes closed… the candid photos really showed me who she was and who my parents were together. I loved seeing the black and white contact sheets – frame after frame of the way my parents saw the world. At this point I was totally obsessed. I started asking my dad tons of questions about his photography days. He gave me his old camera and I started taking it everywhere I went. To learn how to shoot in manual and how to find and see light I had my friends model for me. My dad who was unsure of how to navigate being a single parent to a teenage girl was thrilled that I had a new hobby that he also loved and decided he would build me a darkroom in our basement. He still had his old enlarger and darkroom timer and a quick trip to the local camera shop completed the trays and chemicals i needed. He taught me how to reel film in the dark and how to develop the film and prints. I learned about dodging and burning and experimented with silver paper. I was hooked. I even purchased a medium format film camera and fell even more in love. Most of my days were spent in the darkroom. I was inspired by Linda McCartney – whose work I found so honest. She photographed people in such a beautiful way that was candid and editorial at the same time. It felt natural and like it truly caught peoples energy and personality. One of my favorite quotes by her is “The real thing that makes a photographer is more than just a technical skill, more than turning on the radio. It has to do with the force of inner intention. I have always called that a visual signature.”

I became the co-editor of the yearbook and started photographing everything that was happening at the high school. When I was a senior my classmates had me photograph their senior portraits. I graduated in 1998 and that summer I was hired to shoot a wedding. Now I have to mention that I had never even been a guest at a wedding before. So I was terrified. In preparation I took two friends out to the location of the wedding and posed them as I would a bride and groom. One wore his tux from prom and the other her mothers wedding gown. We had a lot of side eyed looks and cautious congratulations from people walking past but I really tried to use that time to try and learn how to pose people and how to see light. I rushed home and developed the rolls of film I had just shot – really studying the composition and what I felt worked and what didn’t. That August I photographed my first wedding. I was 18. From that moment I knew I loved weddings. I loved the fast paced environment of wedding photography, along with the on the moment problem solving and I craved the highly emotional moments that I knew would be cherished forever.

I have been photographing weddings for 23 years now. When I became a mother myself I carried on the tradition of creating a history of my boys lives.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Nine years ago I went blind. I woke up one morning – the day after a party celebrating the first book I ever I photographed – and I couldn’t see anything. A trip to the emergency room, tests and scan’s later – found a 3cm brain tumor sitting on my optic nerve. I went into emergency brain surgery without a promise of getting my site back. I went into that surgery panicked and afraid I would never see my boys again. At the time they were 9 and 10. I remember thinking they will at least have all of those photos I had taken of them growing up and even if I wasn’t physically in the photos I hoped and trusted they would see me in those images.

Spoiler, I got my sight back.

We all have stories. I have used the loss of my mother and the brain tumor to always remind me how fragile and beautiful life is. I carry all of that with me when shooting weddings for my clients.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
So if I had a friend visiting for a week I would hit all of the major things like museums, (I recently flew to Atlanta for less than 24 hours just to visit a friend and check out the women in photography exhibit ‘Underexposed’ at the High Museum), amazing restaurants, possibly a sporting event and comedy show but I also admittedly would rope them into an escape room. (I love a good challenging escape room). I also would build time to cook a few meals at home (I love to cook) and simply hang out.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My other half, my husband Geoff has been my biggest cheerleader in all of this. He shares my love of photography and has helped bring our business to where it is today. I love being able to photograph weddings with him. When I fell in love with the Fujifilm GFX 50s when it first came to market he encouraged me to write the company an email just telling them how blown away I was with their cameras. That little fan girl letter has opened up a door to work with Fujifilm directly and get to know the amazing team behind the brand. I can honestly say they have become family which has also lead to me becoming friends with so many talented photographers from all over the world. Being a small business owner where most of my work days are behind a computer at home rather than a busy office – it is such a blessing to have so many creatives to chat with.

Website: www.AlisonConklin.com

Instagram: @alisonconklin

Facebook: @alisonconklinphotography