Alison Hay Tinsley Photographer, Author, Yoga Teacher |
I was born in southern California and started a gypsy life almost immediately when my mother joined the Foreign Service and moved to Belgium. I graduated from high school in Rome, where I happily participated in la dolce vita as much as possible. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie which went with me everywhere, but none of those photos seem to have survived ...
In my 20s, I inherited a Leica and a Zeiss Icon from my grandparents, who were also avid travelers and photographers. That started my lifetime fascination with recording both the natural world and the antics of the people (and animals) inhabiting it. After an acting stint in Rome (I got to shout "no" in Giuliano Montaldo's Sacco e Vanzetti), the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast, and grad school at Indiana University, I wound up teaching English and Photography at Freedom High (yep, the hippy school) in Las Cruces, New Mexico and then English and Creative Writing at New Mexico State University. That's me with my Leica and buddies Pat and Robbie off to take some photos at a rock concert at NMSU in 1979.
Now, after years of multiple cameras, darkroom experiments and photographic adjustment techniques, I have reverted back to my beginnings - basic, unadulterated photographs that rely on my unique vision instead of technical manipulation. But now, instead of a Brownie or a Leica, I capture my world on my iphone. My photographs have appeared in various lifestyle and travel magazines and, most recently, in Sleeping With the Toucans: 100 Great Places to Stay in Costa Rica, the product of a four-year fling in Costa Rica with my husband Chris and my faithful 4-Runner Rosie.
Chris and I have lived and traveled in many countries, although "home" has been Mesilla, NM for over 40 years. Right now, we split our time between an ancient stone house in the tiny walled village of Caunes Minervois in Southwestern France and our 100-year old adobe a block from the Mesilla Plaza. My most recent photography collection, When Two Worlds Meet, honors the duality and connectedness of our worlds.
When I'm not taking pictures, I teach yoga with Downtown Desert Yoga in Las Cruces. My classes are all on zoom, so you can join from anywhere!
Web Edition (2009) |
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