Since deciding to branch out from working in journalism and be a photographer’s assistant to having her own studio, photographer Alyson Holder has trained her lenses on many people. Now it is her time to be in front of the camera lenses.
Alyson, who will “jump at any opportunity” to take landscape and nature shots to still images, has been steadily building a clientele who are more than impressed with her portfolio.
Her inspiration comes from controversial internationally acclaimed photographer Annie Leibovitz. Locally it is from Jaryd Niles, Karl Branch and Studio Studio. “They always produce fantastic quality and are great people to learn from. As a photographer I’m inspired by everything, as cliché as it sounds,” she says, with camera clicking away.
Alyson hasn’t had any “formal” training but has had tutelage under the capable hands of Branch and Carl Blenman. She also took photography twice under Errol Nurse at the Barbados Community College.
She says she is her biggest critic and knows that criticism comes with the territory, even though she is relatively new to the field and still learning. “I’ve got a tough enough skin and a good support system. My parent’s have always been very supportive, even if they preferred I’d taken a different route. They taught me to go after what I wanted and whenever something regarding my photography frustrates me, they give me my space and remind me that I’ll get through it.”
Alyson’s studio is a small white room in her apartment. Very basic, but it works for her. She is pretty low-key when she is working on sets. “I usually build some part of the set or make the entire wardrobe. I’d like to shoot more on location though, that’s definitely on the books for this year. Barbados has a lot of great places I want to use.
“I’m very big on previsualisation. As soon as I’ve settled on a new idea, I keep it in my head and spend some time thinking about it. From there it evolves until I’m comfortable with it and excited to get it done, that’s when I know I’m ready to shoot.”
Her favourite camera is “Canon anything” and for work she travels light – with camera, a couple lenses and a flash.
Her largest challenge and personal project to date was a ‘5 Gowns at Kendal’ shoot. She had to mobilize twelve people, deal with intermittent rain and try to work to the scheduled time. It was a serious challenge but she learnt a lot from it, she says.
She relates a few blunders and foul-ups . . . all stemming from her point of view that she is a huge goof and arguably a klutz. “I think the funniest one was when I was shooting ‘The Mermaid’. The rain came down and I was rushing to get some good shots, walking on the reef to get a better angle I slipped and went down hard, landed on my left hand and my behind,” she says, laughing and shaking her head at the memory.
Last year at NIFCA she won a silver and two bronze medals along with the Training Award 1. “At this point I’m open to shooting everything. I do love conceptual images though; that’s what I’m most drawn to at the moment.”
