TCF Ep. 461 - Thomas Michael Alleman

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Cameras, Art, Photoshop, Visual Arts, Career, Interviews, Photographers, Arts, Photography, Photo, Digital

4.8 • 749 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2019

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Thomas Alleman was born and raised in Detroit, where his father was a traveling salesman and his mother was a ceramic artist. He graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in English Literature. During a fifteen-year newspaper career, Tom was a frequent winner of distinctions from the National Press Photographer's Association, as well as being named California Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1995 and Los Angeles Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1996. As a magazine freelancer, Tom's pictures have been published regularly in Time, People, Business Week, Barron's, Smithsonian and National Geographic Traveler, and have also appeared in US News & World Report, Brandweek, Sunset, Harper's and Travel Holiday. Tom has shot covers for Chief Executive, People, Priority, Acoustic Guitar, Private Clubs, Time for Kids, Diverse and Library Journal. In the late 1990s, Tom exhibited "Social Studies", a series of street photographs, widely in Southern California. He's currently finishing "Sunshine & Noir", a book-length collection of black-and-white urban landscapes made in the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Resources: Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click here to download for . Click here to download Support the work we do at The Candid Frame with contributing to our Patreon effort. You can do this by visiting or visiting the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via . You can follow Ibarionex on and .

Transcript

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0:00.0	This Easybody Annex, and this is The Candid Frame.
0:12.0	When I decided to finally schedule my first interview in the new studio,
0:18.0	I knew that I just didn't want anybody. I wanted to have a conversation that
0:23.3	was not only interesting, but it would be a whole lot of fun. All the people on my shortlist
0:29.5	are amazing photographers, so it wasn't just about talent or name recognition. I wanted both of us to have a great time. I was still wrestling
0:40.8	with who to invite when I had the chance to hear Thomas Michael Alamon do a presentation at the
0:47.0	Los Angeles Center of Photography. I was impressed with his body of work, but it was what I
0:53.9	heard in his voice that sold me on him.
0:58.1	As he talked to us, I was swept away by his love and enthusiasm for photography.
1:04.9	It was the kind of childlike passion that those of us who are lucky get to retain or rediscover. Even before he was
1:14.2	halfway through, I knew I had my man. He has had a successful career as a photojournalist
1:20.9	and commercial photographer. He has accumulated a wealth of knowledge and experience that he generously
1:27.3	shares with his students.
1:29.1	But it's his willingness to be honest about his own struggles to become a better photographer
1:33.3	that make him so exceptional.
1:36.4	You know, I won't regurgitate that a whole three-month season of discovery, but to say
1:41.7	that at every juncture of discovery, it was I made a photograph
1:47.3	by accident that I ended up loving without knowing why. And I would have my contact sheets,
1:55.1	which, you know, in those days, that was the 80s, we had contact sheets. I actually slept with my
2:00.0	contact sheets because out of all
2:02.1	the crap on this role, there was one shot that really moved me different than the others. I didn't
2:09.5	know why I had made it and I don't know why I like it. But and I figure, I have to figure this out.
	...

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