Alison Barnes

Assistant Photographer for Sephora.com
Location: San Francisco, CA

I believe that there is a balance to try to maintain. This revelation hits somewhere after your twenties when you
realize that your stay here is ephemeral, and how much you actually have to lose. I know artists who believe that
postponing that recognition for as long as possible is the key to creativity, that fighting formality is a prerequisite
for credibility.

Photography demands a certain adherence to convention and technical proficiency; That may be why you see so
few savants in this medium- though we are in a period that privileges not knowing what you’re doing; allowing
lens flare, motion blur, or farfetched post production do their thing. And I get it, for I am in a generation that has
had so much emptiness sold with images. I want to work less impulsively, and more deliberately, to master and create.