Filenews 5 May 2022
With a suitcase in hand for many years, award-winning photographer Glenn Allison captures images of life, photographs and believes that the art of photography unites the world. These days he is in Paphos for the art exhibition "Continuum", which opens at the Cotton Contemporary Art Gallery in Paphos, tomorrow, Friday, May 6, at 18:00 in the afternoon.
Today Thursday at a press conference he gave at the Alexander The Great Hotel, he talked about his experiences, his travels around the world.
Photographed more than a hundred countries
For more than three decades he has been photographing more than a hundred countries, and Alison's travel images have been published more than a hundred thousand times in most of the world's top travel publications, including National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveller, which rank him as one of the most popular in the world of its kind.
His artistic travel photographs have been represented exclusively by Getty Images since the mid-90s.
Initially at the press conference, Laura Soma, Organizer of the exhibition of the Glen Allison Paphos Exhibition, referred to a statement by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Matarella that "art and culture are bridges that unite peoples", adding that there may not be a more important moment in recent history in which we need unity and harmony.
Referring to Glenn Allison, she said she is an American artist, architect and photographer working for Getty, National Geographic and Conde Nast Traveller. An artist, he said, who has travelled all his life and will present his work in a British gallery in Paphos. According to Mrs Soma, who comes from Italy, this report makes us understand that there are no obstacles and no differences, but there are only peoples who express grace and beauty.
Numerous international awards
As mentioned, many of these photographs of Alison have won numerous international awards, including recognition by the American Society of Mass Media Photographers along with winning first place at the American Aperture Awards and many gold and silver medals in the Prix de la Photographie Paris photo competition among many others.
The images of the exhibition "Continuum" represent the continuous flow of his artistic progress over the years, he added.
Before he started talking about the photographs in his exhibition, Glenn Allison referred to a short story to show where his mindset comes from, in terms of what he's looking for in an image and what he thinks will resonate with both him and other people's lives.
From architecture to travel
As he mentioned he has a bachelor's degree in architecture, from the University of Berkeley in California. Immediately after finishing school he continued, "I fell in love with photography and, although untrained in photography, I became an architecture photographer and I did it for two decades." He described himself as a very determined man, so he set up a business with five full-time assistant photographers.
It was really, as he said, a good business, but due to the fact that subsequently there was a slight recession in the real estate economy, his income decreased a little, while he was already 45 years old, photos of him all over the world had been published and he liked to travel on international missions. After selling all his assets, he raised the money and decided that he would become a travel photographer, from one day to the next.
He then signed with the then leading photographic agency in the world, Tony Stone images of London. He spent a year driving in the United States, photographing all the iconic travel icons, the Statue of Liberty and the Arch of St. Louis and Mount Rushmore. As he recalls, in the first year he made $700 in photo sales for stock because it took him a while to send these things around the world.
I encountered said, "all these travel pictures like buildings". The following year he became involved in Europe, spending a whole year photographing all its emblematic images. As he mentioned, going to a city he is looking for only a wonderful photo, so, as he explained he searches all day looking for the best angle in the Eiffel Tower, when he falls twilight and all the magical lights, he takes one photo of himself and finishes. Indicatively, he noted that he has been looking for his whole life only for a wonderful photo a day.
The following year he decided that he would travel around the world in one year and thus closed 100 international flights in 365 days.
On the road for nine consecutive years
He pointed out that most of these flights were quite short because he was going from country to country. So he filled in his portfolio, and then the money from Getty just began to skyrocket. He stayed, as he said, on the street for nine years in a row and visited more than 100 countries, stating that he loved this way of life.
This way of life, noted the award-winning photographer, made it for nine years in a row and had many crazy experiences, such as that he was robbed of the cameras, caught by an avalanche in Tibet and nearly drowned in Puerto Vallarta, stole him in Moscow and simply incredible things happened to him. He wrote a book which was published in 2000. His wandering began anew, he began to travel.
Then, however, he noticed that, due to the fact that the internet came and there was no monetary value in taking the iconic travel photos, he changed speeds and became an artistic photographer.
For the exhibition
In his exhibition tomorrow, he noted that his works include steam, train wheels, mirrors with splashed paint, drawings by hand, and he also brought some colorful images of travel type.
Over the past decade, the photographer's creative efforts have focused on the development of several series of artworks that will be presented in the current exhibition, including a body painting series with the most recent episode called "unCAGEd" that was photographed in exotic locations last month in the Philippines, including scenes filmed in an abandoned haunted house.
Photographer Glenn Allison's next stop is Lithuania, later Mecca, the Philippines and promised to return to Cyprus and Paphos to photograph its history and culture. Finally, he called on people to travel to record in their memory as many images as they can. The exhibition will run until May 21.
CNA
