Mary Breslauer did this wonderful piece on Alison’s new Shoreline series, in Martha’s Vineyard Magazine. 

REPORTER Mollie Doyle and photographer Eli Dagostino spent a day with Alison, and produced this wonderful article in the MV Times. We had just moved to our new home, and this was the last day we had in our old house – where our family lived for 30 years. What a day…

Photo by Eli Dagostino

ALISON AND I, and our two kids Sarah and Jesse, met at Gannon & Benjamin Boat Yard the other evening, all converging there from different places, by car, bus, and on foot. We love the boat yard – especially Alison, who shoots there regularly – but it wasn’t the charm and fascination of sawdust piles, tools, and boats everywhere that brought us to Vineyard Haven. It was a benefit for Partners for Youth with Disabilities, a nonprofit in Boston that offers programs for youth with disabilities and their families. The Managing Director, Dean Bragonier, gave a presentation about this wonderful organization. Dean’s wife, Sally Taylor, performed at the event as part of the band Something Underground, with brothers Seth and Josh Larson.

The surprise is coming (just keep reading) …

For the past two years, Sally Taylor has been running her fascinating project called Consenses, “engaging artists from around the world, of every medium and genre, and bringing them together by asking them to interpret one another’s artwork in the vein of a game of “Telephone” and express it in their own medium. For example: a musician interprets a photograph, a dancer interprets their song, a painter interprets the dance, a perfumer interprets the painting, a poet interprets the perfume and so on until all five senses are represented. In this process, each artist is given seven days to extract the essence of the artwork they are provided and use this work as the catalyst for their own creation, ultimately expressing their raw reactions in the language of their own medium. None of the artists are privy to the identities of the other participants.”

Five of Alison’s photographs were chosen by Sally for Consenses, including this one of a wave at Lucy Vincent Beach:

Our family was SO surprised when Sally introduced a new song, written by Seth and Josh, based on this photo. It’s just beautiful. Brought tears to our eyes (at the end of the song, Sally nodded to Alison and smiled, such a lovely moment)…

Consenses is hosting a Festival of the Senses on the Vineyard, August 18-20 (tickets and info).

UPDATE:
Here’s a video of Sally explaining Consenses…

ANOTHER UPDATE:
And here’s Sally’s awesome TED talk…

I’M SO HONORED to read this wonderful article in the MV Times. Karla Araujo heard about our new 6-month mentorship, and asked to write a story.

Photo by Eli Dagostino

To read the article, click here.

Squibnocket II 2004

THE MARTHA’S VINEYARD TIMES published this great feature article, in which Alison discusses the technique behind her series of abstracted seascapes.

It’s a more creative approach, where she uses her camera like a paintbrush to capture the essence of a scene, distilling it down to the feeling of being there. By panning as she shoots, she minimizes the extraneous details of what’s there, ending up with a shot that evokes a more sensual nature of the place.

Click here to read the article.

ALISON GRADUATED from Smith College in 1975, came to the Vineyard for the summer, and never left. If you were to name the two most important places in Alison’s life, it’d be Smith, and Martha’s Vineyard. Here is a short article about Alison in the Smith Alumnae Quarterly that puts both places together, and offers a little perspective on her journey since college.

Favorite (humbling) quote:

“Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Stan Grossfeld has said that ‘she is to the Vineyard what Georgia O’Keeffe is to the American Southwest.’ ”