Photography captivated Alison Titus around 2008 when in middle school. She started spending a lot of time engaging with other photographers on Flickr and after two years of commenting and liking other photographers’ work, she started drawing attention to her own. She explains that you won’t ever get any attention if you don’t engage with other artists.

A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's looking through a window

365 Projects

“The basic idea was that you would take a self-portrait every day for a year.” Alison says that during her 365 Project she forced herself to keep practicing and keep creating even when she didn’t really feel very inspired.

A self portrait by Alison where she's leaning against a palm tree

Her editing style

She would shoot a couple of hundred images until she got a few that she liked. For post-production she’d use Photoshop and stick to very simple techniques. such as “using curves to edit colours and the clone tool for retouching.” She doesn’t rely on post-production too heavily and prefers minimal editing.

A black and white self portrait by Alison where she is embracing winter

Alison’s Inspiration

Alison derives inspiration from everything around her; nature, artists and photographers alike. She admires these established photographers:

She also follows a lot of other up and coming photographers:

  • Michael Bailey-Gates
  • Elizabeth Gadd
  • Olivia Bee
  • Elle Hardwick
  • Chrissie White
A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's in a fort with a teddy bear
A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's sitting in a little foot path way

Then and now

As a Visual Arts Major, she extended her interest from photography to short films and animations, with featured “work that was very different from my old self-portrait style.”
She is currently working as an animator and childrens’ book illustrator (that sounds like fun!), “I’ve actually been thinking about starting a new self-portrait series.”

We here at Outdoorphoto are super excited to see what this Visual Arts and Public Policy Major comes up with next and will definitely keep an eye out for her new series of self-portraits.

A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's out in a green field
A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's kneeling in mud
A self portrait by Alison where she's sitting on the side of a little pond wall.
A black and white self portrait by Alison where she's 'sleeping' on a bed of green leaves
A black and white self portrait by Alison with a scenic view of a dam in the background
A black and white self portrait by Alison posing with her Nikon Film Camera
Alison lying in a little ball on a white linen sheet
Self portrait where Alison is curled up on the bed
Self portrait where Alison is sitting in a puddle of water playing with a paper boat
Self portrait where Alison is playing with snow
Self portrait where Alison is sitting in the snow with silver foil wings