Alana Paterson’s Organic Images

The story of photographer Alana Paterson‘s childhood is one that is just as engrossing as the works she produces as a result of it. The current resident of Portland, Oregon grew up on a small island off the west coast of Canada with her immediate family—and no-one else. Her connectedness to her environment is evident in the picturesque portraits and landscapes she captures, and her camera rarely ventures indoors.

“Where I’m from plays a huge role in how and what I communicate as it does for everyone; whether you’re from the jungle or the desert,” she tells us. “As someone from the pacific north west has an affinity to natural spaces, I’m from the western gulf islands so from day one it’s all I’ve known.”

A graduate of both Emily Carr and Lesley Universities, Alana’s work is like a visual journal, intimately documenting the places she goes and the people she meets, with little of her experiences left out.

“A lot of my life is present [in my work],” Alana explains, “The only parts missing are the boring bits, like updating websites and emailing clients, being stuck in traffic. Also the ones that are just too beautiful or meaningful to catch on film. They exist and it’s hard for me—and I would guess other photographers of the same genre have the same problem—to let go of some things I see, not always being frantic to get an image or spoil a beautiful moment with a camera. I’m learning that you can’t capture it all and to be okay with that.

“My favorite things to shoot are people I love—as cheesy as that sounds. I like to shoot the little idiosyncrasies that make up who they are, the little things you can’t notice about a person untill you have spent a lot of time with them.”

Currently, Alana is working on a long-term project that she’s been working on for the past three years: a series on the organic farm where she spends her summers working. While it often means her career as a photographer is put on hold while she’s immersed in this world, it enables her to actively pursue something that makes up so much of her life.

“It can be really hard being out there knowing I’d have way more photographic work if I was living in Vancouver or able to travel more. But it’s also a really great job I’m lucky to have and growing is something I’m passionate about. I guess that project is where the two halves of my life can meet.”

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  Alana Paterson