Sally R Allen
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(415) 699-8627
I am fascinated by the interplay of light, texture and color in architecture, landscape, oceans and lakes, beaches, flowers and plants, and then how we find these same colors in our manufactured environments.
Recently, I have become fascinated with reflections and multiple exposures as a way to create dialogues between reality and fantasy.
During Covid I was drawn more to black and white images than to color, and I sought out serendipity. My latest images exhibit these characteristics. I found it enjoyable to wander around the city with my camera set to take multiple images. I then was surprised when I downloaded the images to my computer to see what I had photographed.
I continued experimenting with scrolls, but not as much as earlier—I wanted to be outside, even if alone, rather than inside experimenting. I enjoy the interplay of the unexpected with the use of imagination to see images in abstraction.
I have had a lifelong passion for photography, which was ignited by my first job as a reporter and photographer. I am largely self-taught, but I have taken numerous college classes and workshops to improve my skills. Among my most memorable workshops have been Photo Alliance’s on Alcatraz and at Mono Lake.
My photos have been published in Hidden Alcatraz, Steve Fritz & Deborah Roundtree, University of California Press, 2011; Mono Lake, Photography and the Environment Workshop, Photo Alliance, 2009; Connecting Cultures through Art: India, Lisa Filpi & Sally Allen, 2008.
I have exhibited my work at San Francisco Open Studios since 2012. I have also been represented in gallery shows of Public Education Students at the San Francisco Art Institute, the Advanced Printing Seminar at SFAI and GGNRA volunteer photographers images at the Visitors’ Center in the Presidio.
I created the project, Through My Eyes, to introduce photography to underserved elementary school children. Its goal is to provide these children with a sense of positive self-image and community.
I also participated in Connecting Cultures through Art, a collaborative digital photography project with students in Vidhya Peetam, a rural industrial community in southern India, and at a San Francisco high school. The goal was to foster understanding through photographic images showing similarities between the cultures.
