Alexander Lowry Opens 2006 Exhibits at Viewpoint

Alexander Lowry has been making personal and professional photographs since 1957. He has been a newspaper and public relations photographer, and for the last 30 years has done contract work, primarily for educational and conservation organizations. In 2000, he stopped accepting commissions to concentrate on personal work.

Throughout his 48 years of making photographs, he has explored several parallel paths, including wildlife, landscape, and abstract images, but he has always photographed people and life going on around him in the documentary tradition.

“My first serious photographic efforts began in 1957 and were very much influenced by my discovery of The Family of Man. I was very moved by the power of the documentary photograph produced by a skilled and astute observer. I found my photographic interests directed not to major events, trends, or fads but mostly to the little things of life—real people doing real, everyday things.”

Lowry has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows, his photographs have appeared in more than 500 publications worldwide, and his prints are in public and private collections. Since 1974, he has taught workshops for UC Santa Cruz Extension and others. He has produced five books of photographs, and is currently working on a book of his people pictures.

In 1920 Edward Weston wrote, “Peace and an hour’s time—given these, one creates.” Lowry says, “Living in Mount Shasta affords me the peace and time to work on my photographs nearly every day.”