Biography
Ethereal and impressionistic, Alan Blaustein’s black and white photographs of European scenes are evocative of images shot in the ’80s and ’90s. More than a reflection of what Europe is like today, they are a rediscovery of where its soul lives. In the very shadow nature of these photographs, the viewer finds traces of the past, details of things much loved and often overlooked in the hustle and bustle.
In harkening back to an earlier time and an earlier photographic style. Alan Blaustein also has given expression to his own personal photographic ‘voice’. Much to his amazement, photographs that he had tucked away in boxes thinking that they had no commercial value are finding an appreciative audience among corporate, advertising and fine art publishing clients.
A commercial photographer in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than a decade, Alan had developed a successful career shooting for corporate, advertising and editorial clients. As with many professionals, he kept separate those projects he undertook for personal satisfaction and those that he did on assignment.
Alan holds a BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York and an MFA degree from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where he has been teaching for 16 years. He has also taught classes at the University of San Francisco and City College of San Francisco.
Alan’s excursions to Europe have taken on new interest now that his landscape photography has been discovered. For the past 12 years Alan has been capturing images in European parks and gardens. When there, he likes to shoot in black-and-white, preferably in adverse weather.“I see Europe in black-and-white in my mind’s eye because it is so old and there is so much stone and texture,” he says. “When it is cloudy and dreary out, I can shoot all day. The textures and tones I am looking for show up better when the lighting is soft.” Alan prefers to photograph during the sunrise and sunset hours. This gives his photographs a crisp, clean mood; with perfect detail in the highlights and shadows. This provides him with a nice contrast from his cloudy, overcast style of imagery.
With a show coming up, and more clients telling Alan they want him to bring his own personal vision to his assignments, Alan is finding that he is becoming known for a style distinctively his own. Interestingly, it wasn’t something he had to go out and invent, it was in him all along.
Alan has published several calendars and has a book in progress featuring images from parks, gardens, villas, and chateaus in Italy and France. He has also lectured on photographing in European parks and gardens, location lighting, and alternative processes as well as many other topics relating to photography. Some of Alan’s commercial photography projects from the last three years have won awards from The Western Art Directors Club, The American Advertising Awards, American Graphic Design Awards, How Magazine’s Self-Promotion Award, and Print Magazine’s Art and Design Annual. Alan has successfully integrated his fine art approach with his commercial photography. He has had numerous solo exhibitions over the last few years including a 120 print retrospective.